The event, held at the Friends House in Euston, provided a vibrant atmosphere where students, teachers, project partners and IRIS staff could mix and discuss STEM topics and the value that taking part in authentic research in school has for young people.

James Perkins, Head of Science at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Faversham, emphasised at the event how important it is for young people to get the opportunity to take part in research. He said: “Well, it’s about the experience. We go and see plays, we go and listen to music, we go to sports matches. Those are all professional things that the kids aspire to do. So why wouldn’t you give them those experiences in the STEM arena? It’s exactly what we need in order to show what scientists actually do.”

We also asked students attending the conference for their thoughts on doing research in school. Jan from Derby College told us that secondary school students could really benefit from doing real research: “For them to do it – it could massively improve their skills in data or confidence presenting the posters. So yeah, it would be quite good for them.”

And Stefanos from Derby College said: “I think it prepares them for when they have to do it in the real world because you’re not going to be doing projects like the ones you mainly do at school in the real world, you’re going to be doing projects like this.”

Brooke Porter, a maths teacher at Dover Grammar School for Girls told us: “I think it opens their eyes to opportunities that are out there in the real world. And it shows them that they could be an engineer or that they could go into aerospace engineering because they don’t always think about those options.

“It was really interesting to hear a speaker say earlier ‘I was going to do maths because I’m good at maths’ and they didn’t even think about all these other options. So I think it shows them, that they can literally do absolutely anything that they want to do.”