The Space Science Engineering Foundation (SSEF) exists as an education charity to build students' confidence in their ability to handle STEMM challenges by giving them experience of handling a STEMM challenge. It was set up to capitalise on students' interest in space and futuristic technology. We use Space settlement design as the driver for students to delve into topics in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, (the STEM subjects of the National Curriculum), as well as environment, medicine, psychology, sociology, management, product design, process design, communications and business. Given that environmental concerns need to be explicit in all design activities, we will rename the Foundation at the Charities Commission to be SSE²F Space Science Engineering & Environmental Foundation.

The Foundation accomplishes its goals by running a variety of design-activity events, for a variety of school students. Our events started with design of space settlements, but we have now added a companion series about designing environmentally sustainable Earth settlements. The space activities are the UK Space Design Competition (UKSDC) for secondary schools, and its counterpart, the Galactic Challenge (GC), for younger students. Earth-centric activities are the Environmental Design Competition (EDC) for the senior students and EcoMeet (EcoMeet), for the junior students.

These activities all use industry simulations. Originally, our space settlement design activity for senior students was created by workers from NASA. With support from the UK Space Agency and other sponsors, we also adapted it to suit junior students and, later, to serve Earth-centric challenges. The original NASA workers created a high-tech multidisciplinary challenge so that students could have a more realistic experience of the working life of big-mission designers. The 'big thinking' behind space missions is what makes the SSEF activities exciting; it provides the sense of wonder and the personal delight in team accomplishment that is a signature of the mood at the end of each of our events.

We added our on-Earth version of the settlement design activity, to match the interests of students today. With such an emphasis on Environmental design, we have changed our logo from SSEF to SSE²F, and will add 'environmental' to the Foundation's formal name in due course. The Foundation's purpose and mission remains the same.

Employers and university admissions teams benefit in multiple ways:

(a) Students are able to their use experience to claim: "I know I can do STEMM because I have already used STEMM in this big challenge";
(b) Students can claim: "I know that I can collaborate, cooperate, communicate and be part of student-led critical problem solving because I have done it on this challenging design task";
(c) Students can claim: "I know that I can work in a diverse group, because my SSEF activity involved students from different schools working together as a multidisciplinary team"; and
(d) Students can claim: "I know how it feels to be ready to defend my work and my team's work because our team faced a vigorous Q&A from a panel of clients".

SSEF runs events around the UK and, for areas that we are yet to be able to reach, we run an online version of our activities, to widen access geographically, economically, and socially.

Key aspects of our activities are:

• A client supplies a 'Request for Proposal" with defined "minimum requirements".
• The audience is different from usual, for a student: a client, instead of a teacher, requests the work.
• The breadth of topics includes STEMM, arts, business and many more fields, imitating real-life.
• There is no pre-existing 'correct answer': Space settlements are futuristic and Earth sustainability needs are yet to be met.
• Students work in a larger-than-usual teams, managing themselves as a company, to fulfil the client's ambitious request.
• Time, cost, quality, safety, risk-handling and opportunity-recognition cut across every student's work, on every topic.

The students bear testament to the success of our programmes. Besides gaining various knowledge, skills and industry insights, pupils gain other personal benefits. These include increased confidence, awareness of their own strengths, an understanding of other people, a feeling of competence, and a sense of responsibility for the consequences of their actions. Above all, they have fun.