Our volunteers mentored over 50 students from local state schools for the UK Youth Rocketry Challenge (UKROC) over three months. UKROC is a rocketry competition for school students aged 11-18, where they design, build and launch a model rocket.

The students made incredible progress over a very short period of time as they learnt the basics of model rocketry, carried out simulations on OpenRocket and built and decorated their rockets. The experience was highly rewarding for the mentors who guided the students through the process, and we are looking forward to expanding our outreach programme to reach even more students over the next few years.

The outreach programme would not be possible without the support from the students and teachers at Belmont Community School, Seaham High School, South Durham UTC, UKROC organisers and volunteers, Advanced Research and Invention Agency (ARIA) and our mentors