World-famous astronaut Tim Peake is to host an exclusive live webinar for more than 2,000 Scottish school pupils.
The children will get the chance to hear from and interact with only the seventh UK-born person to visit space.
The former International Space Station crew member, who has spent a total of almost 300 days in space, will speak to kids on Thursday, May 7.
Sharing his story of space exploration, including experiments he undertook which couldn’t be done on earth, Peake will also place a focus on STEM-related (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects, explaining their importance as we look to the future and the unlimited career paths that they could open up for students.
The live webinar will replace two events which were scheduled to take place in March in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, but which fell victim to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Hundreds of school children across the country had entered a competition earlier in the year to win the chance to perform a live Q&A session with the astronaut.
The competition involved students working in a team to ‘invent’ a potential solution to a climate change or environmental issue currently facing the world – submitting a video entry which outlined their invention.
The winning school teams, which include Mintlaw Academy and Kemnay Academy, will now have the chance to ask Peake a number of questions during the live webinar, covering a range of topics such as how to become an astronaut, what it’s like to live and work in space and what STEM subjects would help with pursuing a career in space.
The event is being organized by The Data Lab, Scotland’s innovation centre for data and artificial intelligence.
Chief executive Gillian Docherty said: “The world we live in today will have dramatically changed by the time these children reach adulthood, from the way they communicate and commute, to the way they are treated medically and the varying careers that will be available to them.
“Having undertaken a career which the vast majority of us could only dream of, Tim Peake has a very inspirational story to share and we are much very looking forward to welcoming him to deliver this exclusive webinar.”
A former test pilot and British Army Air Corps officer, Peake is a European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut, famous for spending six months on the International Space Station, completing around 3,000 orbits of the earth, and covering a distance of nearly 80,000 miles.
Through his work with the European Space Education Resource Office (ESERO), the astronaut has been helping to attract more young people to study STEM subjects and enter the space industry.
For more information on The Data Lab, visit:
