Today Year 5 took part in a Book Trust online Author event with Maggie Aderin-Pocock, a renowned space scientist! Maggie has recently released a fantastic book which answers all sorts of space questions, and although it is a while since our space topic, this event was brilliant as it taught us even more new facts about our solar system, galaxy and the Universe we are part of. For example, did you know that we are all made of stardust because most of the elements of our bodies were formed in stars over the course of billions of years and multiple star lifetimes! It’s also possible that some of the hydrogen and lithium, which our body contains, originated from the Big Bang, the birth of the universe!

We also learnt that it would be impossible to sing in space as there is no air to breath, trust us, we tried! You can try too, breath out all the air then try to sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star without breathing in again!

We loved learning that Maggie was inspired by not only her parents, but also scientists such as Steven Hawking and Jocelyn Bell Burnell and the actress Nichelle Nichols who played Lieutenant Uhura in Star Trek and that prompted us to think about our inspirations and who we are inspired by. After listening to Maggie, a number of us are now inspired to be the first woman on the moon, or the first person to live on Mars!

You can also watch the online event here: Maggie Aderin-Pocock live event recording to see what else we discovered.