What would you do if you had just 48 hours to escape the planet?

That was the challenge put to Year 7 and 8 students at Petchey Academy who embarked on a ‘mission to Mars’ last week.

In a surprise disruption from their normal lessons, students from Years 7 and 8 were called in for an emergency briefing to be told that an asteroid the size of five football pitches was on course to hit the school in just two days.

Petchey students were joined by 120 children from Hackney primary schools for a series of workshops involving explosions, rockets, coding and much more courtesy of the engineering education grant scheme and the Science Museum.

Sarah March, the school’s STEM co-ordinator, said: “I wanted to make STEM real to students, and widen their aspirations. Right from this early age, it’s important to show students how important STEM is in their world and how the skills they develop through application of STEM can be beneficial to them both now and in the future.”