Orbyts and Orbyts STAR: At the Heart of Great Science is Opportunity

Orbyts is a movement founded at UCL in 2015 and organised by STEM researchers andteachers that creates inspirational partnerships between scientists and schools. By providingschool students with relatable science role models and supporting our students in leadingtheir own original science research projects, Orbyts helps them to defy the systemic biasesthat are too often found in STEM and dispels the harmful stereotypes that have historicallyprevented science from being more inclusive.UK science education faces significant inclusivity, education and skills challenges. STEMsubjects, and particularly physics, suffer from a systemic lack of diversity created by long-standing barriers to inclusion. Girls, Black students and students from low-incomebackgrounds are highly under-represented at all levels of physics from GCSE onwards [1,2].Less than 20% of post-16 physics students are girls [3] and students from the most deprivedbackgrounds are 3 times less likely to take A level physics and 6 times less likely to achievethe top grades than those from the highest income backgrounds [2].The Orbyts ethos of providing regular engagements, inspirational role models and activeownership of scientific research is proving to be transformative in tackling the issuesmentioned above and is profoundly shifting perceptions of science and who can be ascientist. The evidence shows that it is particularly impactful for groups historically excludedfrom science. For example, our partner schools report 100% increases in girls’ uptake of A-level physics, following participation in Orbyts at GCSE. Since 2018, Orbyts has enabled 195+UK school students to author scientific publications (10s of papers) and most of thesestudents are designated as being pupil premium (a metric that includes income deprivation).See Fig. 1 for more relevant statistics regarding the engagement that Orbyts has had so far.Since its conception, Orbyts has expanded significantly in line with our goals of reaching asmany underrepresented groups as possible. Orbyts hubs are now present outside of Londonin Leicester and Northumbria and we have an international hub to support researchers inother countries in running their own Orbyts projects. One such group that has frequentlybeen overlooked with respect to outreach opportunities is that of students suffering fromlong term medical conditions. The unpredictability of such conditions can prevent thesestudents from engaging with science at the traditional school level whilst also having othernegative effects such as making it harder to maintain confidence in their intellectual abilitiesand relationships with their peer group. This year we have piloted the Orbyts STAR (StudentsAdvancing Research) project in partnership with the hospital school at Great Ormond StreetHospital to deliver a bespoke research project to their students. The project surroundscharacterising the variability of exoplanet host stars in preparation for the launch of the Arielmission in 2029 and is specifically tailored to allow for additional flexibility needs. In this talkI will start by giving a general overview of the Orbyts programme and its structure and thenpresent some of the results from the STAR research project specifically.References[1] UK chemistry pipeline loses almost all of its BAME students after undergraduatestudies, Chemistry World, August 2020. https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/uk-chemistry-pipeline-loses-almost-all-of-its-black-asian-and-other-ethnic-minority-chemists-after-undergraduate-studies/4012258.article[2] Limit Less, Support young people to change the world, Institute of Physics Report,October 2020. https://www.iop.org/sites/default/files/2020-11/IOP-Limit-Less-report-2020-Nov.pdf[3] Why not physics? A snapshot of girls’ uptake at A-level, Institute of Physics Report, May2018. https://www.iop.org/sites/default/files/2018-10/why-not-physics.pdf