This was a cross-curricular event showing how the combination of modern languages and physics can open up opportunities in future careers. The RAF is a great supporter of languages with science and had put together this day for Year 10 students across the country.

The teams were presented with a science/engineering challenge and used their language skills in French, German and Spanish, alongside their scientific skills.

There was a keynote talk by the RAF, as well as an introduction to the challenges of low-earth orbit and marketing concepts. There were several other presentations, including a taster in Russian. We met RAF linguists and RAF space specialists. There was a session also to find out more about the RAF and careers in the future.

Our three teams worked well and it was noted how engaged they were. They needed to produce an engineering presentation, explaining their proposed space hotel, and deliver in their modern languages a marketing pitch for their hotel.

Feedback acknowledged the teams’ innovation and how they had taken into consideration the restrictions of sending certain materials into space, the dimensions and scale. Several had worked out their power calculations accurately.