With a background in physics, Dr Simon Foster is the Outreach Manager for the Faculty of Natural Sciences and the Engagement Lead for Imperial’s Space Lab. The son of an electrician, he was the first in his family to navigate the world of higher education and scientific research. Simon is not just known for his infectious enthusiasm and his numerous television appearances, but also for his tireless efforts to break down the barriers that can keep young people – especially those from working class backgrounds – from meaningfully engaging with science.

“You never get over those nerves”, he says reflecting on his early career forays into presenting and public speaking. “You just mask them.”

During his PhD, Simon rejected elements of outreach because of a reluctance to stand up and speak. “I remember my supervisor said to me, if you want to be a scientist, you’ve got to present.”

Later, a spontaneous entry to the Famelab science communication competition saw him reach the final to take third place. He also developed his confidence through taking part in Imperial’s INSPIRE programme – teacher training designed for people with a STEM PhD. All this helped Simon keep his nerves under control enough to progress his career, not only in research but as a leader in outreach and as a TV science show presenter. In the two decades since his PhD, he’s become an ardent ambassador for outreach and engagement, joining Imperial as the Physics Outreach Officer in 2012 and teaching on the INSPIRE programme he himself had been through.

“I really enjoyed talking to young people about science, and trying to enthuse them,” he says. “So there was outreach, but then alongside it, there was wanting to help people from widening participation backgrounds because I am from one.”

He talks about the inspiration he felt in seeing cosmonaut Dr Helen Sharman CMG OBE visit the Mir Space Station in 1991. “That planted a seed in me, and probably lots of other children too, and I think we can do that at Imperial,” he says.

“You don’t know where the missing piece of the jigsaw is to find the cure for cancer – whose head it’s in. Unless they’ve been given the opportunity to engage with science, you might miss it. The talent pool has to be big enough. You have to draw from all parts of society,” says Simon.

So how has outreach changed since he began his career?

“I think the thing that’s changed,” he says, “is that a lot of PhD students are very interested in doing it now – a lot more than when I did it. And we’re incredibly lucky at Imperial that we have PhD students who are not only very keen to do it, but are very good at doing it.” One of his favourite aspects of his work is seeing students develop into academics who do their own outreach work. He cites Jess Wade as an example, calling her a ‘proper superstar’ on account of her tireless work to advocate for better representation and recognition of female scientists and scientists of colour.

Simon’s work has also focussed on building relationships with local schools, ensuring that children in the neighbourhoods around Imperial are kept up to date with open days, and talks from alumni such as NASA Head of Science Nicola Fox. Remembering how daunted he felt during his first days at university, he thinks it’s important that young people have the chance to visit a university campus and speak to academics before they contemplate higher education.

Simon’s boundless enthusiasm for sharing science has been captured on screen in various TV appearances including Duck Quacks Don’t Echo (Sky One). The show, which explored the weird and wonderful side of science, was presented by Lee Mack, ran for three series and featured a range of celebrity guests. “Danny Dyer knows a lot about astronomy, surprisingly,” he chuckles.

“The real task for us in outreach," Simon says, "isn’t just sparking interest. It’s giving young people the nuts and bolts they need to actually get there.” While passionate about showcasing fascinating aspects of science with young people, it is sharing the fundamental stepping stones towards a science career that matters most to Simon. “These routes aren’t always visible,” he says. “I was lucky my parents encouraged me to go to university despite not being able to see the pathway.”

Dr Rob Davies is the Assistant Principal at Kensington Aldridge Academy, a school close to Imperial’s White City campus that sits in the shadow of Grenfell Tower. Prior to teaching, Rob was a researcher in the Department of Materials at Imperial. But, supporting undergraduate and PhD students in his lab, as well as hosting outreach activities for school pupils, made him reconsider his career path. So, in 2017 he enrolled in Imperial’s Innovative Scheme for Postgraduates In Research and Education (INSPIRE) – a teacher training programme.

Delivered in partnership with Canterbury Christ Church University, INSPIRE ran from 2007-2020. It was unique in being tailored to researchers who wanted to transition to the classroom. It trained over 100 science and maths teachers. 

“As a researcher, you're always kind of developing other people in some way, whether it's people who are who are more junior to you or people who are just starting their research career,” Rob says. He remembers helping a fellow researcher overcome a language barrier to produce his thesis. “Moments like that made me think maybe I want a career where I feel like I'm having a bigger impact on people.” 

Enjoying the elements of the outreach work he did as a researcher, Rob heard about the INSPIRE programme and, with the encouragement of the programme manager Dr Corinne Hanlon, applied in 2017.  

“The INSPIRE programme was aimed at people who wanted to make the transition from having done a postgraduate STEM degree to teaching,” he explains. For the first six weeks, the trainees spent time learning how to teach, then they went into schools for their placements. One of Rob's placements was at the Harris Academy in Battersea, which had undergone transformative improvements to become an ‘outstanding’ school in a short period of time. “I think that for me was the most formative experience, because it showed the power and the influence of a group of teachers that had that same mission, and that drive behind them.” 

Following the INSPIRE programme, Rob interviewed for a role at Kensington Aldridge Academy in spring 2018 and has been there ever since. The school has a high level of pupil premium funding - “and that obviously comes with its own impacts,” says Rob. Pupil premium funding aims to support students who are eligible for Free School Meals, those who have been in care, or those adopted from care. It is intended to help these students overcome barriers to learning and achieve their full potential. “Typically fewer of our pupils go on into higher education and typically fewer go on into higher paid jobs,” Rob says. 

Now in a leadership role, he describes his early career teaching science at Kensington Aldridge as hugely enjoyable. “I look back on those first couple of years really fondly,” he says. In his current role, he’s passionate about ensuring his school students have real access to higher education pathways. Through his strong links with Imperial, Rob has coordinated visits for his pupils to Imperial's Molecular Sciences Research Hub and invites Imperial students and researchers to give talks at his school.  

“Giving a talk in a school might seem minor to the speakers, but for the pupils, the impact can be huge. Especially in a school like this, where guest speakers aren’t the norm.” 

He now has former pupils studying at Imperial who come back to talk to current cohorts about careers in science. “It's quite a powerful thing for them to see somebody who was in their shoes not that long ago, someone who has high aspirations and is on the way to achieving them,” Rob says.  

“You can’t miss the fact that pupils here have been hugely affected by the Grenfell Tower tragedy. It kind of overshadows everything - literally and metaphorically – but there is so much resilience and a really strong sense of community.”  For Rob’s part, he is committed to nurturing that sense of community and determined to inspire his pupils to be aspirational and ambitious for their futures. 

Professor Alan Spivey never set out to transform primary science education across the globe. But thanks to a chance meeting in 2013, and a deep-seated belief in equity and access to opportunity, the groundwork was laid for one of Imperial’s most far-reaching outreach initiatives – Reach Out CPD.

Now Imperial’s Associate Provost (Learning and Teaching) and a Professor of Synthetic Chemistry, it all came about, he explains, thanks to Imperial’s links with Professor Lord Robert Winston, a familiar face in British science communication. “He had been working with an educational media company called Twig headed up by former TV executive, Anthony Bouchier,” says Alan.

Then-Vice Provost for Education, Professor Debra Humphris, invited Alan to a meeting where Anthony shared that Twig had access to an incredible bank of short films featuring natural and scientific phenomena. “He wanted to develop them into an educational resource for primary school children and Robert had encouraged him to partner with Imperial - not just to give it credibility,” Alan explains. “But to fully collaborate to ensure it was a top-quality resource.”

Just over a year later, this fruitful meeting had led to Reach Out CPD - a free online continuing professional development programme for primary school teachers featuring resources developed with Imperial academics to sit alongside the short films.

The Royal Society had recently published data showing the only 5% of UK primary school teachers had a science qualification, Alan explained. “We felt that engaging primary school teachers would enable the most impact,” he says. “We wanted Reach Out CPD to equip teachers with the confidence to explore science in the classroom, and offer resources they could use in their lessons.”

Working with Professor Maggie Dallman, who was leading the development of the initial Societal Engagement strategy at Imperial, Alan identified the areas of science the programme should cover and then reached out to relevant experts across Imperial to help develop the content. “They had to be happy to feature in videos and explain how their cutting-edge research was founded on key scientific principles that could easily be understood by primary school children. It felt like a big ask,” says Alan. “But not one person said no.”

A host of Imperial colleagues stepped forward. “Stephen Connolly in Life Sciences, Phil Ramsden in Maths, Kevin Murphy in Medicine, Simon Foster in Physics, David Stokes in the Business School and many others were all incredibly keen to be involved – you got a sense that people could really see the value in what we were doing,” he reflects. “I think the main reason for such enthusiastic involvement was the fact that this was going to be a resource that was free to all UK primary school teachers.”

The effort paid off. Launching in September 2014, Reach Out CPD offered five thematic units. Teachers across the UK signed up in droves and by 2016, the project won the Bett award for Best Open Education Resource. “We didn’t need to do that much with it after that,” says Alan. Word spread amongst teachers and the numbers continued to grow. By August 2023, over 82,000 users from more than 28,000 schools had registered for Reach Out CPD with close to 200,000 hours of training being undertaken. Alan recalls a sudden and surprise uptick in registrations during the pandemic as the resources became invaluable for online lessons.

“Recently, there was a period when the platform was down,” explains Alan. “We were inundated with emails from teachers asking when it’s coming back.” This pause came due to the Reach Out CPD content being transferred from Twig website to Imperial's. “The Interdisciplinary Ed Tech Lab at Imperial were instrumental in achieving this,” he adds.

Going global

The successes in the UK were astounding but in 2016, the project began to go global when a weekly science news bulletin for children under 13 was launched. Twig Science Reporter is a weekly two-minute film showcasing topical science news in an exciting, and engaging way. Working with Dr Corinne Hanlon, who helps manage the Twig partnership, they oversee the scientific accuracy of Twig Science Reporter, often turning to Imperial experts for rapid fact-checking.

Now hosted on both a dedicated website and YouTube, Twig Science Reporter has had over 4 million views with the dedicated website receiving close to 300,000 views from more than 49,000 subscribers, and a truly international footprint. The Spanish-language version - fully dubbed, not just subtitled - has seen explosive growth in South America, with Colombia, Argentina, and Peru among its top audiences.

“It has Imperial’s branding throughout,” says Alan. “So, it’s a wonderful way of introducing the university to millions of young learners around the world.”

In 2021, Twig was acquired by Imagine Learning, the largest provider of digital curriculum solutions in the US. “This eventually meant that the content was being used to develop primary science curricula in states across the US. Again, Imperial’s branding features in all these resources,” Alan adds. Twig learning materials for those aged 4-14 can be found in 32 states and more than 3,200 schools.

Twig and Imperial’s longstanding relationship has also led to a new partnership with UNICEF. During COVID, UNICEF launched the Learning Passport which works to close the learning poverty gap by increasing access to high quality learning materials in low- and middle-income countries. The Learning Passport includes much of the material produced by Twig and Imperial for Reach Out CPD. To date, UNICEF have successfully deployed the Learning Passport in 45 countries engaging over 9.8 million registered users.

Alan and Corinne have been involved in all of these projects. For Alan, his commitment stems from an anti-elitist philosophical outlook. “Growing up, I developed a strong belief that progress should be based on merit rather than privilege, which is ironic because I attended a private school,” he says. “It felt elitist – I was only there because my father taught there and I had a scholarship. It felt uncomfortable being surrounded by so much wealth.

“Many private schools nurture an amazing self-confidence amongst their students," he continues. “I have nothing against that. But then you have students who haven’t had the same experience, who haven’t been exposed to the same opportunities and don’t have the same level of confidence. It’s that disparity, that inequality, that drives me.”

Dr Corinne Hanlon is the Special Projects Manager in Imperial's Societal Engagement team. Since pursuing mechanical engineering at university, her passion for her subject ultimately led to a career that has focused on inspiring young people to engage with STEM. Her work has taken her through numerous roles in outreach, from school visits to managing the development of Imperial's INSPIRE programme, the Pimlico Connection, and global partnerships with Twig Education and UNICEF.

“When I was young, I always loved figuring out how things worked, so I was often doing little experiments around the house and in the garden,” says Corinne. At the age of eleven, she moved to Ireland developing a clear passion for science and maths. “As I was studying for my Leaving Cert [Irish school leavers exam], I loved discovering interactions between maths and physics, and seeing how they tied in together.”

With only a couple of older cousins having gone to university in her family before her, and none with a STEM focus, she says she was lucky to stumble across mechanical engineering as it brought together both her passion for maths and physics, and her enjoyment of art and design.

“At the time I would have loved to have pursued a pure STEM degree, such as maths or physics, but it was really hard for me aged 17 to understand what the job of a mathematician or physicist would look like. My mum worked as a waitress at the time, and my dad as a porter, so they weren’t aware of what those sorts of jobs looked like either. Was it in an office? Was it a nine to five type of thing? Was it working as part of a team? Was it on a computer? Was it in a lab? I didn't have a clue,” Corinne says, describing the mystery surrounding unfamiliar career paths for many first-generation teenagers applying to university. “But with engineering, it was easier for us to imagine what a job in that field might look like, so that is one of the reasons I applied for mechanical engineering.”

Corinne later moved from Ireland to Yorkshire for a PhD. There, she entered several public engagement competitions and discovered a love for inspiring young people with STEM. This led to her enrolling in Imperial’s INSPIRE PGCE teacher training programme, attracted by its niche focus on outreach. “I wanted to help young people develop an excitement for science like I had when I was growing up.”

Although she didn’t complete her PGCE, it cemented her love for working with young people. “I’m immensely grateful for that because it has directed my career ever since,” she says. “I realised how much I loved seeing that light appear in their eyes when a pupil figures something out or suddenly it all makes sense to them – seeing the moment the wonder of science dawns on them in real time.”

Following INSPIRE, Corinne spent some years in the School of Engineering at Queen Mary University of London as the Outreach Officer before returning to Imperial. This was for a maternity cover role that entailed managing a number of outreach programmes including the Pimlico Connection and INSPIRE. Based on her own experience of the programme, she made adjustments to help increase trainee retention.

She also organised the development of PhD student ambassadors, who would go on to deliver inspiring talks in schools. “For every ten people I trained, they might go to five schools. They might speak to 30 pupils. With outreach work,” she reflects, “you can sometimes end up finding yourself, unwittingly, at the centre of a ripple effect. It’s humbling to think that the work you do could positively impact the life of someone you've never met, and in ways you could not even begin to imagine.”

Following this role, Corinne spent a few years at the University of Warwick where she continued to develop outreach activities before, once again, returning to Imperial overseeing pioneering projects such as Reach Out CPD, Twig Science Reporter and UNICEF’s Learning Passport. These are high-quality digital science education resources for primary level teachers that have been developed in partnership with Twig Education. They impact many millions of people globally and Corinne is responsible for coordinating Imperial’s significant input.

“You just don't know where your career is going to lead”, Corinne says. “In my case, I could never have imagined that a degree in mechanical engineering would lead me to where I am now. But I would always say to young people, just follow your interests. If you follow your interests, and you follow your passions, I think it always leads you down the right route.”