On Thursday July 14, our mentors tuned in for the latest instalment of our webinar series, this time hearing from Frazer Thorpe, Education and Engagement Manager for the ARC Centre of Excellence in Plants for Space, based at La Trobe University. Frazer gave mentors an engaging overview of Plants for Space and the outreach work they do across schools to provide students and teachers with ways to connect to the research work being done. Mentors learnt how the team brings a futuristic, yet grounded, vision of space science into the classroom by exploring the science of growing food in space, learning what it takes to sustain human life beyond Earth and how those lessons can be applied to our own agricultural processes.
It was a fascinating look at how big questions about space can be brought back down to something very immediate and relatable: what we eat, and why it matters. We finished off the session with a great Q&A, with our mentors keen to dig deeper into Frazer’s work. Our mentors relished the opportunity to learn about another STEM outreach program, reminding us of the importance of the work here at In2science and understanding how we all link together to build student STEM aspiration and engagement.
We’re looking forward to sharing more from our speaker line-up in the months ahead, so stay tuned for what’s coming next!
