STEM Person of the Week (SPOTW) Cymru is an evolution of an established and evidence-backed initiative created, developed, and tested by NUSTEM at Northumbria University. SPOTW Cymru provides interventions - including a STEM Person Of The Week show, classroom resources and teacher CPD - serving a new primary schools' audience in Wales, where country-specific needs exist. The project aims to tackle the barriers faced by young people who see STEM jobs as not for 'people like me'. What makes this different to other role model schemes is that it uses the attributes of people working in STEM that are then observed and highlighted in a classroom situation over a further 5 weeks during day-to-day teaching. These observations help to show students how they already have inherent skills that mean they could naturally 'belong' in a STEM working environment. By working with the teachers as STEM influencers and providing take home resources for students to share with parents there is added value to this STEM confidence-building activity. In addition, teachers gain a wider awareness of the diversity of jobs you can do with STEM skills, which helps build a legacy in their knowledge for years to come. Research conducted on the project to date has shown that the negative stereotypes of people working in STEM were reduced and some changes persisted for at least 12 months. The precursor project has so far been delivered by NUSTEM in 42 schools to over 10,000 students in England. In the SPOTW Cymru project Science Made Simple (SMS) will expand this successful English initiative to respond to the needs of primary schools in Wales and provide localised connections for students to STFC connected staff who have Welsh heritage or another connection to Wales. The adoption of a new Curriculum for Wales provides an opportunity (and a need) to provide bilingual resources that focus on STEM skills and careers related experiences. Careers and work-related experiences (CWRE) are a core cross-cutting theme that schools now must address (in a similar way to the Gatsby benchmarks used in England). We propose that an adaptation of materials to involve SPOTW role models from Wales would help Welsh students see the local relevance of STEM jobs to them in their own region. In addition, we would aim to encourage that the scheme is adopted more widely across Wales and this will require the creation of bilingual materials and Welsh-language delivery being available to all. SMS currently delivers STFC's Early Career Public Engagement training programme at the three main STFC facilities to encourage more participation from early careers staff in public engagement and outreach work. SMS aims to link SPOTW Cymru to those graduate and apprentice training cohorts to identify and invite participation from STFC people with Welsh connections, thereby providing an additional public engagement opportunity for those on this scheme. As an additional motivation to schools, and to help raise the profile of the resources, we will build on the experience that Science Made Simple (SMS) has in delivering role-model themed interactive shows. In this way we are not just adapting the existing scheme with a Welsh flavour but also adding a face-to-face experience as a kick-start event in the school, alongside a series of teacher CPD training, and the option for parental involvement in the show itself. By using consistent evaluation tools with the wider programme this will allow us to test the impact the show has on the uptake and the engagement from schools. This learning will be shared back to the NUSTEM team and aims to enhance the sustainability and growth of the UK-wide programme long-term.

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Through an interactive science show which combines presenter-led demonstrations with 3D video fly-throughs of the Martian surface, we will show audiences that space exploration is an exciting and current scientific field in which the UK is a significant partner. Planetary science is by nature interdisciplinary, drawing on all STEM subjects. This project aims to encourage students to make these links, and to connect with core-curriculum science at the various key stages. The project will promote UK contributions to planetary science by drawing on STFC-funded research. This will include results from past and current orbital and rover missions, as well as looking at future missions such as ExoMars Rover and ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter. We will inspire students to consider careers in STEM, in particular by using Mars exploration as an inspirational theme for current and future challenges in science and technology. We will also gather together a series of classroom resources, based on a combination of updating existing materials from ESERO-UK, ESA and NASA, with some newly produced content from the project team. We will incorporate Mars resources into existing primary and secondary teacher training CPD programmes (Space Made Simple, ESERO-UK).

Despite challenges with decoherence, solid state spin qubits remain one of the best practical implementations of quantum device architectures that exploit quantum state entanglement, owing to the possibility of incorporation into existing electronics technology. 'Physics for Quantum Technologies' was acknowledged in a recent EPSRC Physics Grand Challenge survey as the most overwhelmingly recognised challenge in the physical sciences. "New materials for solid-state quantum electronics need to be developed" was a highlighted high level requirement. Physics for Quantum Technology was also acknowledged as having the highest potential UK economic impact should the UK establish an intellectual advantage. All electrical control of single electron spins in a practical semiconductor device would be a major breakthrough which the UK is in a unique position to achieve owing to the world lead it has in the strong spin-orbit InSb/AlInSb semiconductor material system. There are a number of key stepping stones to achieving the end goal of single electron manipulation in gate confined quantum structures. We propose to address the material growth challenges of highly mismatched InSb/InAlSb epitaxy on GaAs and Si, and achieve world record carrier mobilities and associated ballistic length, and develop device capability for advanced measurement and exploitation by the wider UK scientific community. Through a series of standard quantum transport devices, this work will ultimately demonstrate the potential for electron spin manipulation (and therefore individual qubit addressing) by the spatial translation of single electrons in complex multiple gate field effect devices, using the Rashba spin-orbit coupling to enable local spin state control.

The establishment of Space Made Simple (SpMS) will extend a highly successful astronomy/space outreach programme currently only funded for delivery across Wales (AstroCymru), and start to extend the project across the UK. It will also provide some essential support for the (currently unfunded) Faulkes Telescope Project (FTP), and help with the development of an education programme to support the Gaia space mission. STFC funding is essential to allow this extension of the geographical reach of the programme, and the development of crucial aspects of the project such as teacher CPD workshops and new online resources to support schools engagement in STFC-funded projects such as Gaia. It is led by a highly respected and experienced team of astronomy and STEM educators. Here we outline our case for partial support of the key staff members involved in the various educational projects that form our main deliverables, and T&S funding to allow the delivery of workshops outside Wales. Substantial match-funding is available to support any STFC funds awarded. The AstroCymru project currently provides innovative, high-tech STEM education programmes targeting geographically isolated and socio-economically deprived areas of Wales, funded by the National Science Academy (NSA) of the Welsh Assembly. Following an extremely successful initial 12 months of operations, AstroCymru has engaged with ~26,700 participants - almost 12,000 KS 2-5 children in 58 schools (47 primary, 11 secondary plus 10 SEN units/schools), many schools being visited several times; 14,700 general public in 59 events, and worked with 273 teachers over 10 events across Wales, including 113 in full-day CPD workshops. The project was recently selected for another 3 years of NSA funding (01/04/15 to 31/03/18), demonstrating the impact it has already had in the target area. Central to the programme will be access to state-of-the-art facilities such as a portable 3D projection system, online simulations and educational resources, and use of research-grade, remotely-controlled telescopes around the globe (FTP). These will be used to deliver exciting and inspirational workshops, talks and shows to a variety of audiences. This combination reinforces the learning objectives of each programme, and will allow delivery of educational shows covering a broad range of STEM topics. The visual impact of high-tech delivery and the engaging subject matter ensures that it captures the attention of learners of all ages and abilities. SpMS will include school and public events, lectures and workshops, and online resources and facilities based around astronomy and space science. It will directly reach 15,000 students/public over a 2 year period (with even more indirectly via online resources), with a particular initial focus on an expansion of the project into England, to socio-economically deprived and geographically isolated areas. It will tap into current excitement around ESA missions such as Rosetta, Gaia and ExoMars, and NASA missions such as Dawn, Pluto Express and JWST, whilst also targeting manned space flight and the ISS (e.g. Tim Peake's Nov. 2015 Principia flight). A range of educational resources will be produced that will be freely available to all schools across the UK, targeting ages 8-19, engaging them with e.g. the Gaia mission and carrying out follow-up observations of newly-discovered targets using robotic telescopes. SpMS represents excellent value for money, bringing together our successful, tried-and-tested astronomy-based STEM education programmes under a single organisation, extending the reach of our outreach programmes to cover a wider geographical area, and linking with new research projects.