From September 2025 to February 2026 we were one of 9 science centre delivery partners across the UK for the Next Gen Earth Project. This project was coordinated by the Association for Science and Discovery Centres and funded by the Natural Environment Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation and aimed to engage young people from diverse and underrepresented backgrounds with environmental science, research and careers.
We partnered with Space Youth Services and worked with young people at both Barnstaple and Bideford Youth Centres. The project focused on youth-led engagement with the aim to understand barriers for young people when considering careers in environmental science, and to inspire agency and ownership within environmental science.
It was really exciting to go in with very little plan and see where the young people took it…
Activities
In our first sessions we tried to build an understanding of what aspects of the environment interested, inspired or concerned the young people. From there we ran activities during their normal youth centre evening drop-in sessions, focused around the themes they had shown an interest in. Water quality, plastics, marine health and their local river all emerged as being really important to the young people. In Barnstaple, we ran sessions mostly focused around water quality, looking at the chemistry and biodiversity of the river on the young people’s doorstep. In Bideford, we ran sessions around citizen science, ocean plastics, marine health and underwater sound.
The activities culminated in a field trip to the local weir on the River Yeo for the Barnstaple young people, led by an ecologist, where we did some litter picking and learned about the local ecology. For the Bideford young people we took the bus to Westward Ho! beach for some litter picking and rock pooling led by a marine conservationist.
The young people grew in confidence in talking about science as we progressed through the project and grew in their enjoyment and involvement in the activities!
Local Inspiration
A really important part of this project was for the young people to engage with local people working in environmental science careers. We were hugely grateful to the inspiring STEMM leads that got involved with this project.
Mark Burnett was a huge asset to the project and volunteered his time throughout, sharing his marine expertise but also enjoying sitting and getting to know the young people better. Mark has nearly 30 years’ experience in marine technology, environmental monitoring and innovation leadership, including working for the past decade with Seiche Ltd – the UK’s leading specialist in underwater noise and marine mammal monitoring, based in Devon.
Reg Godwin was the lead on our Kingfishers: School Freshwater Champions project and we were delighted that he volunteered to support with this project too, running a session focused on water quality in our rivers and doing chemical testing on water samples from a section of the River Yeo very close to the youth centre. Reg works for Thermo Fisher Scientific, training and supporting laboratories across Europe but worked in analytical chemistry for 18 years, including 11 years at the Environment Agency.
Both Barnstaple and Bideford youth centres sit within the beautiful North Devon UNESCO Biosphere, so it was fantastic to be joined by staff from the Biosphere team.
North Devon UNESCO Biosphere encompasses a large area – extending from the catchments of the Rivers Taw and Torridge, with its core at Braunton Burrows sand dune system – and all the people and life in between!
Rob Isaac is the lead ecologist for the Biosphere where he carries out terrestrial ecology assessments and designs monitoring schemes, as well as running ecology focused outreach activities with communities. Rob supported us with the River Yeo field trip with Barnstaple youth centre, doing some kick sampling to search for freshwater invertebrates and discussing the ecology of the river and its banks.
Hannah Nash is the Marine Projects Coordinator for the Biosphere and has a background in journalism and marine conservation. She supported the field trip to Westward Ho! with Bideford youth centre, discussing the incredible marine life in the Biosphere and guiding us through some wonderful rockpools!
What’s next?
Although this project has come to an end, we’re really excited about developing future projects with the young people in Barnstaple and Bideford. Barnstaple youth centre are interested in continuing their monitoring of their local river through citizen science projects and the young people in Bideford had some fantastic ideas for engaging people with environmental science through social media. We’re really excited to get them more involved in the creation of our first hands-on science centre in Barnstaple!
We’re really grateful to our partner Space Youth Services who worked with us to co-create this project and taught us a huge amount.
