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Education: Introducing young people in French Guiana to Sciences and Space
Throughout the 2024-2025 school year, hundreds of pupils in French Guiana, from pre-schools to secondary schools, took part in immersive educational projects organised by Guyaspace Expérience. Programming Mars robots, a mini scientific congress about the moon and a sensory discovery of space: here we look back at the three main activities that piqued the scientific curiosity of the young people of French Guiana.
During the 2024-2025 school year, Guyaspace Expérience—the former Space Museum—offered young people in French Guiana a fun, scientific immersion into space, via three innovative educational projects.
The Mars Robot Challenge: off to Mars!
On 3 April, the Mars Robot Challenge involved pupils aged 6 to 8 years from Kourou, Cayenne, Saint-Georges-de-l’Oyapock and Rémire-Montjoly. Over the school year, these young explorers learned how to code and operate a robot, which they symbolically sent to the Red Planet.
Via a series of class workshops, they discovered the features of Mars, the challenges of robot missions and the basics of programming. The year ended on a high with a big group presentation in the Jupiter room at Europe’s Spaceport, which was transformed into a Mars exploration space for the occasion.
The Children’s Scientific Congress: bite-size science
On 6 June, the 2025 Children’s Scientific Congress took place, bringing together 63 pupils: the classes of 9- to 10-year-olds from the Eliette Danglades primary school in Cayenne and a class of 11-year-old pupils from the Pierre Ardinet secondary school in Régina.
This educational project is for children in the final year of primary school and first year of secondary school, and invites them to step into the shoes of young researchers. Accompanied by doctoral students working with them in their classrooms, the pupils lead a genuine scientific investigation on a theme linked to space. This year they worked on an ambitious theme: “Lunar Base”.
During the congress, with their passes around their necks and a microphone in their hands, the pupils presented their work to their peers, having attended a talk by a guest scientist.
Budding Engineers and Astronauts: a first taste of space!
On 19 June 2025, six classes of 5-year-olds from Kourou and Macouria spent half-days taking part in the Budding Engineers and Astronauts project at Guyaspace Expérience.
Designed for very young children (aged 3 to 6 years), this project raises awareness on space themes via fun activities suitable for the sensory and cognitive development of the children. With rockets, planets, space suits and engineer challenges, the pupils experienced an immersive day in the world of astronautics.
Lookback in pictures...
The Mars Robot Challenge, on 3 April 2025
The Children’s Scientific Congress, on 6 June 2025
Budding Engineers and Astronauts, on 19 June 2025
These activities illustrate the commitment of Europe’s Spaceport and Guyaspace Expérience to scientific outreach and space education from the early years
Teachers, would you like to sign your class up to an educational project at Europe’s Spaceport next year?
Find all the information and the terms and conditions for signing up on our dedicated page: centrespatialguyanais.cnes.fr/en/enseignant
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