AEB Escola Program: Inspiring young talents for space careers in Brazil

The AEB Escola Program is the STEM program of the Brazilian Space Agency that was established in 2004. The program offers a range of activities to stimulate students' interest in science and technology and encourage them to pursue careers in the space field. Over the years, the AEB Escola Program has integrated the school and academic communities to disseminate the importance of space technology, its daily impacts on citizens' lives and the fact that the knowledge generated by the space sector crosses the borders of their use in satellites and rockets. The AEB Escola program aims to empower teachers through courses and workshops so that they can have enough subsidies to teach themes related to space in schools. In addition, theoretical, practical and pedagogical materials on astronomy, astronautics, and other themes are offered for them. The program also carries out activities for students at different school levels. Ludic and educational workshops with hands-on techniques and disseminating basic scientific concepts are aimed at elementary school students. Activities such as PET bottle rockets, Brazilian satellite and rocket mockups, a portable planetarium and others are used with this younger audience. Middle and high school students are introduced to scientific research and technology development. In this case, we can mention the Space Technological Vocational Center (CVT-E), located at the Barreira do Inferno Launch Center in the city of Natal. In the CVT-E, middle and high school students learn notions about space exploration, CubeSats, model rocketry and robotics. Another activity focused on this audience is the GLOBE Program (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment), which promotes scientific research about the environment and its relation to space applications. At the universities, the AEB Escola Program supports the development of rockets, rocket benches and CubeSats. AEB Escola also promotes several workshops, lectures, hackathons, webinars for different audiences and for the dissemination of science. Several face-to-face and online training, workshops and activities for teachers and students have taken place in these 18 years of program. As an example, from 2018 to 2021, AEB Escola produced, organized and supported several scientific dissemination events that included more than 80 lectures on space themes, about 100 didactic workshops aimed at children and young people and approximately 20 Olympiads among other competitions, always approaching the space theme. These various activities were attended by more than one million and three hundred people, including students, teachers and the general public. Recently, due to the need for social distancing caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, AEB's training actions focused on online activities. In September 2021, the AEB Escola Virtual Learning Environment (AEB Escola Virtual) was launched to structure and organize the virtual educational activities of the AEB Escola Program. The AEB Escola Virtual has already trained an audience of 343 among middle, high school and undergraduate students and teachers in the GLOBE Program and Small Educational Satellites courses. For 2022, courses are being planned in several space areas such as Astronomy, Space Sciences, Astronautics, Environmental Sciences, Space Geopolitics and Entrepreneurship for the Space Sector, among others.