Space: The impact on science enrolment, skills and society

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Space The impact on science enrolment,
skills and society

• Carol White
• Supervisors
• Professor Nick Von Tunzelmann
• Professor Jordi Molas-Gallart

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Introduction

• This presentation looks at the UK space sector
  and Its increasing importance in a global as well
  as the UKs economy
• Through satellite technology
• Its effect on science, technology, engineering
  and mathematics (STEM) subjects.
• It raises three main insights as questions
• 1 Space research as an idea to encourage science
  interest
• 2 Resource requirements of space research for
  STEM skills
• 3 The skill requirements for assessing the wider
  impact of space research.

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Satellites and society

• Applications in
• Broadcasting Mobile Communication
• Global Positioning Systems
• Meteorology - agriculture
• Earth Observation-climate change
• forest clearance
• polar ice
  caps
• disaster
  warnings refugee migrations Financial services

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Satellites future potential

• Offender surveillance
• Monitoring systems for elderly and vulnerable
• Traffic management
• Technological spill-over from space research-
  eg.Search for life-on-Mars spectrometer adapted
  to diagnose TB in Africa.
• Expectation of many more downstream technologies

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The miniature mass spectrometer designed to
search forlife on Mars has been adapted by the
Open University and the London School of Hygiene
and Tropical Medicine to provide a quick,
accurate diagnosis of TB in Africa.Source UK
Civil Space Strategy, credit ESA
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Alphasat is the next generation of
telecommunications satellites.Immarsat is
developing the spacecraft with the UK arm of
Europes largest space company EADS Astrium, to
support broadband and telephone services
especially to Africato address the current lack
of affordable communications source UK Civil
Space strategy
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UK space program

• The UK contributes to European Space Agency (ESA)
• It is a founder member of the Space Exploration
  Group
• It participates in other bilateral national
  programs
• it is only one of G8 countries consistently
  declined to participate in manned space
  exploration
• Instead, the UK has developed an expertise in
  satellite systems and in robotics for the
  exploration of space.

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Space is one of the highest value-adding UK
industries. Nearly 60 of UK space workforce has
at least a first class degree.Its productivity
figure of more than 100,000 per employee-nearly
3 times the national average. It is also one of
the most RD intensive, investing 12 of its GPD
contribution in RDThe UK space sector
contributes around 7 bn and 70,000 jobs to the
economy source UK Civil Space Strategy
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UK Space Program-continued

• Heavily dependent upon maintaining and increasing
  skill-based workforce
• Remains competitive-for the moment- but supply of
  science graduates to meet demand of UK industries
  is in jeopardy.
• Enrolment in science subjects, especially STEM
  subjects (science, technology, engineering
  math), have been in decline for many years.
• Gaps in supply filled by imported skilled
  workforce
• Some University STEM departments forced to
  amalgamate or close

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Global threats

• Government acutely aware of implications to UK in
  a global economy of a short-fall of skilled
  workers
• Emerging countries like China and India are
  catching up fast, already producing a third of
  global high-tech exports and attracting global
  RD investment
• India and China produce over 2million university
  graduates per year against UKs 250,000

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The Government - and Space

• Encouraging young people to discover an interest
  in science and pursue it beyond graduation, and
  consider science as a career, has become a high
  priority for the Government
• This has encouraged the Government to invest
  heavily in projects and outreach programmes

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• Space is credited with the power to inspire
  children and attract young people into science
  with space related activities to provide the
  context for investigating relevant issues and
  concepts.
• Some evidence exists small scale studies in
  Scotland and East Midlands schools suggests,
  where space was included in the curriculum, a
  measurable effect on STEM performance.

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US Apollo program

• US also reported an increased interest in science
  and a huge surge in science uptake which they
  linked with the Apollo manned space program of
  the late 1960s.
• This in turn provided a generation of highly
  skilled workers which boosted the US economy for
  many years following Apollo.
• It is tempting to consider the US approach to
  UKs longstanding refusal to support a manned
  program and present STEM skills shortage.

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US- Reversing the trend

• 50 years later finds the US experiencing a loss
  of critical STEM skills similar to the UKs
• This has been attributed partly to lack of growth
  in the space industry which has seen nothing new
  from NASA since before todays college graduates
  were born.
• But other explanations for a decline in UK
  interest in STEM may exist, and there may be
  reasons why the US reported an increase
  coincident with Apollo.

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Space exploration generating interest in science?

• Reasoning would suggest that space can influence
  study and career choices- under certain
  conditions, but the claim that space, especially
  with a human involvement, has a unique ability to
  inspire interest in science is at present
  inconclusive.
• And other reasons may exist for a decline in STEM
  which may be self -perpetuating . A dearth of
  graduates for example sees the best skimmed off
  into lucrative jobs leaving fewer to go into
  lower-paid teaching.
• As a result some courses may not be offered or
  they may be badly taught discouraging further
  study.

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The following three questions arise

• 1. How valid is the idea of space research to
  encourage science interest, and to what extent
  does manned space flight increase interest in
  pursuing science beyond the formal school years.
• 2. What are the resource requirements of space
  research for skills in STEM?

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Questions continued

• 3 What are the skill requirements for assessing
  the wider impact of space research, including the
  upstream demand-pull effects and the downstream
  supply-push effects of using space research
  technology and products in innovative ways, for
  example, where other uses may appear as
  unconnected research work which calls for
  different skill sets, or the ability to
  learn-by-doing or learn-by-using ?

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Methodolgy outline

• To develop both an empirical and a theoretical
  appreciation of the relationship between the
  impact of space research on Stem Skills, a
  combination of both qualitative and quantitative
  research methods would be used.
• This would include the use of semi-structured
  interviews, observation and survey responses, the
  review of reports and the analysis of national
  data banks and other documentary sources, in
  combination with the expertise of my supervisors.

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Apollo 11

• Buz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong
• Lunar Landing Mission 1969- the first manned
  mission

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Children admire a model of Beagle 2 at the
National Space Centre, Leicester source UK
Civil Space Strategy, credit National Space
Centre
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The Exploring Space Gallery at the Science
Museum, London sourceUK Civil Space Strategy,
credit Science Museum J.Hills
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• Thank you for your attention
• Any Questions?

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Bibliography

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• BNSC Partners (2007), UK Civil Space Strategy
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• BNSC Partners (2007), Global Exploration
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• http//zuserver2.star.ucl.ac.uk/iac/case_for_spac
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• NERC (2007), Next Generation Science for Planet
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• http//www.spaceref.com/news/viewpr.html?pid8335