ORBYTS
ORBYTS projects are a partnership between schools and PhD researchers, enabling secondary school pupils to engage with high quality research projects with a PhD researcher as a role model and mentor.
ORBYTS is a schools outreach project, spotlighting research carried out by the ERC-funded ExoMol team. ORBYTS was founded in 2015 by Prof Jonathan Tennyson (PI ExoMol and ExoMolHD ) and Dr Clara Sousa-Silva (ExoMol PhD student 2011-14, and now a 51 Pegasi b Fellow at Harvard).
ORBYTS partners university researchers with schools to empower pupils to undertake original research. The programme targets historically-excluded schools with one or no specialist physics teachers, and provides otherwise-scarce knowledge experts to pupils. ORBYTS has demonstrated success in widening access to education and broadening uptake of science. The UK has significant diversity challenges: <20% of those studying physics beyond 16 are girls, schools involved in ORBYTS report 100% increases in girls taking physics beyond 16.
ORBYTS has enabled 1000+ students, largely from under-represented groups, to perform original research and for many to (co)author peer-reviewed publications. Over 100 school-research partnerships have leveraged original research to inspire the next generation resulting in 14 peer-reviewed publications with contributions and authorship from school students. ORBTYS was recognised by the UK 2021 NEON award for widening access to education.