Prof Brian Cox talks climate and science during Ballymena trip

Scientist and TV presenter Prof Brian Cox met school students at the Braid arts centre in Ballymena, County Antrim

"Some of them will make a tremendous contribution to the world, to our civilisation."

After a day spent with 400 students at the second Science Summer School in NI, Prof Brian Cox has high expectations.

The musician-turned-particle physicist co-founded the initiative with Lord Andrew Mawson in 2012.

Their aim was to open the eyes of young people to the possibilities of science, technology, engineering, the arts and maths - or Steam.

"Sometimes if you don't know anyone who has been to university, or who works in one of those industries, it's very difficult sometimes, as 13, 14, 15-year-olds, to have the confidence to say: 'That's what I want to do'," said Prof Cox.

"So a lot of this really is aimed at building connections and bridges."

And with a changing climate, it is also about addressing the challenges that face the planet.

"So what you see here is a renaissance in those industries, greener industries," he explained.

"But it's not just about that. It's about economic growth as well. You've got this tremendous heritage here and obviously talent, as we saw this afternoon," he said on Tuesday.

"So, putting those two things together, the future's astonishingly bright, I think."

Pupils got to experiment with lasers, concrete, lightweight engineering materials and radio-controlled cars, as ways of showing them the wider applications of the Steam subjects.

Freya from St Louis Grammar School in Ballymena was among the students who took part in the event

For Freya, from St Louis Grammar School in Ballymena, experimenting with lasers was a new experience.

"It's made me think a lot more about these different career paths you can do in your science in general," she said.

Harry, from Dunclug College, enjoyed learning new skills through building a brush monster, saying he was "getting better at teamwork and just working stuff out".

Prof Brian Cox on stage in Ballymena

The arts are a recent addition to the Stem family, and one that Prof Cox is delighted to see, as someone who still performs as a musician.

"You don't find meaning through the eyepiece of the telescope," he said.

"Science, yes; engineering, yes; but also art and literature or music, philosophy. All those human disciplines are ultimately necessary but not sufficient attempts to understand what it means to be human, so they go together in my mind.

"My life has been a mixture of the two. I think everybody's life is a mixture of all these different ways of thinking and so it's wrong in education to try and separate them into different lives."

Climate emergency

The need for continuing curiosity and learning is something he hopes the students take away from the Science Summer School initiative.

"That's part of today. In order to find challenge - intellectual challenge, difficulty - in order to find that exciting, you have to have some confidence and so part of today is to give the students confidence.

Some students got to work on an engineering project

"They've got their curiosity and they've got the ability, we saw that, and the questions they asked - they've got everything they need.

"What they might not have, potentially, is just that they might not quite see the road, how to do it or where to go. So that's really why these events are so important."

With the effects of climate change becoming ever more apparent, the industries that supported the Science School event are turning to the Steam subjects to help make their processes greener.

And there's one other step Prof Cox thinks would help address the climate emergency the world is facing.

"All elected leaders should be launched into space," he said.

"The majority of them should be brought back again. But the reason is so they can see the planet for which they have responsibility."

The D:Ream assignment - by Louise Cullen

They say you shouldn't meet your heroes, but perhaps rules are made to be broken after all.

The last time I saw Prof Brian Cox in person he was playing the keyboard as part of 90s pop band D:Ream as the crowd danced in the Ulster Hall.

Fast forward, well, a few years, and we talked about the infinite possibilities of an ever-expanding universe and the importance of ascribing meaning through art and philosophy to the discoveries of science.

Prof Brian Cox with Louise Cullen

The young people there asked all sorts of questions; some fun - what's your least favourite area of science? (Answer: he loves them all and is discovering biology now).

And other more practical - how quickly is the universe growing? (Answer: increasingly rapidly).

I like to believe I'm not the only person who walked away feeling a little spark of hope for the planet.

Perhaps things really can only get better…