From Satellites to City Streets: Exploring careers with 4Ei

Last week, Year 10 students at Merchants Academy took part in an engaging careers workshop with 4Ei, a company that uses satellite data to understand and solve global challenges. The session gave students the chance to connect their classroom learning with real-world jobs and skills.

The session began with an introduction to satellites and the surprising ways they’re used in everyday life. The students discovered how satellite images can help track city growth, monitor pollution, study changes in the environment, and identify heat hazards. They were particularly interested in how technology plays a crucial role in solving global challenges, with one student saying the best bit of the session was “learning how satellites can help everybody on earth with so many different things and have so many different uses”.

Next, the students explored the themes of heat hazards and pollution. They saw how satellites can provide data on heat hazards and why this is important and then tested their knowledge by correctly colouring a map of their local area. It was fascinating to discover that whilst artificial grass may look green from above like a park, it in fact can be a big heat hazard! Building on this, students learned more about the impact of pollution and earth imagery can support the planning process to reduce pollution.

Armed with this knowledge, the students took on a practical challenge: designing their own town maps. Working in groups, they designed towns that took into account key factors such as green space, housing, transport, and air quality. They had to think about where to place buildings, how to reduce pollution, and how to design safe, healthy environments for future communities. The task encouraged teamwork, creativity, and problem-solving – skills that are essential for many careers.

The workshop not only sparked curiosity about careers linked to earth observation, remote sensing and data analysis, but also highlighted the broad range of opportunities available – from technical roles to the non-technical roles in the field. Students said it was a “very fun and interesting session, made me think more of getting into this in the future”, and overall, the activities were a reminder that the skills the students are developing in school, such as collaboration and problem solving, are also essential in many different careers. A huge thank you to 4Ei for delivering such a great insight session and to the Year 10 Geography students at Merchants for such good engagement with the session – we hope you left with new knowledge, new skills, and perhaps even some new career ambitions!