Our City on Mars - exploring conditions in Nottingham and the red planet; what we need for a good life here and in the cosmos

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Our City on Mars builds on the exploratory project supported by the WonderMatch programme in 2018/19 which enabled partners in Nottingham to work across disciplines, to identify a future collaboration between arts and science and to work with communities in an area of Nottingham which faces considerable challenges in economic stability and employment opportunities.Our aims are:To create an education programme that inspires young people in their excitement and understanding of the science of astro-physics and the solar system;To bring different levels of expertise and knowledge together through an interdisciplinary approach, across the arts and STEM subjects, to demonstrate how collaboration adds value over the sum of individual inputs; To use the 'holding form', the metaphor, of Our City on Mars, to engage the interest of children in what conditions are essential for life on another planet, and thereby to reflect on conditions for living in societies in North Nottingham;To create a model of engagement and education that can be replicated and delivered in other learning contexts; to contribute thereby to the strategies and case studies of the Nottingham Cultural Education Partnership, CHalleNGe;To create learning resources on the topics of the solar system that are customised for the partner schools, in particular to create resources that are based on knowledge maps and progression;To raise public interest and understanding of Science in general and Astro-physics and the solar system in particular, through the Bulwell Arts Festival and the Nottingham Festival of Science and Curiosity (FOSAC) and the Real Science in Schools Symposium.The longer term impact of the project will be larger numbers of children and families in our target area of delivery with raised appreciation of the role of STEM subjects in their education and cultural lives; Children and families will have increased their science capital as a result of this project;And public understanding of science in our target group will also be measurably increased.The project will also be a model of partnership working across both Nottingham Universities, colleges, community development organisations, creative education charities, other voluntary organisations, business, industry and civic authorities. A commitment to closer working collaborations across the STEM City partnership has been agreed in a structured approach for public engagement and this project would be an early illustration of that commitment.