How it Works

Discovery Diaries use the arts as a way to engage primary school students in STEM. Themed around real-life science projects, they inspire learners by profiling diverse experts who work across the STEM sector.

Curriculum-aligned and fully supported by teaching resources, Discovery Diary programmes can be downloaded from this website for free.

Download a sample Explore the programmes

ESA Astronaut Tim Peake introduces the Discovery Diaries

"Each of these programmes takes a creative, art-based approach to STEM learning, encouraging children (and teachers!) to imagine, question, research, visualise, analyse, problem-solve and ‘think like a scientist’ while embracing all the wonder of space."

What are Discovery Diaries?

The Discovery Diaries are a groundbreaking STEAM series for primary students, available in English and Welsh. Packed with creative, personalised activities, each programme is supported by a suite of educator resources including teaching notes, lesson plans, multimedia, videos and more. Diaries contains 60+ hours of curricular-aligned activities and can be downloaded in full for free from this website, along with support materials.

Hard-copy diaries are available for purchase from the Shop.

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Buy Discovery Diary books →

Arts + Science = Future Innovators!

star apprentice chloe, principia space diary, solar system
star apprentice luke, principia space diary
astronaut-workout-space-diary
Cooper and Jordan School, Principia, Primary Education, Space Diary, Tim Peake, ISS, astronauts
star apprentice, STEM, principia space diary, tim peake, Sam Cristoforetti, astronauts, ESA
star apprentice chloe, space dinner, principia space diary

Choose a Programme

Principia Space Diary Primary Science STEM Tim Peake UKSA

Principia Space Diary

For upper KS1/lower KS2 (or equivalent) Journey to the ISS with ESA Astronaut Tim Peake! From astronaut training to conducting experiments and observing Earth, go on the Principia mission with Tim!

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Mars Diary Primary Science STEM Tim Peake UKSA

Mars Diary

For KS2 (or equivalent)
Get ready for your mission to the Red Planet! Recruit a crew, invent a helpful rover friend, decode and analyse data then design a sustainable Martian habitat that has everything you need.

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Deep Space Diary, Discovery Diaries, Deep Space Diary Book

Deep Space Diary

For KS2 (or equivalent)
Uncover the secrets of the Universe with the James Webb Space Telescope! Explore deep space by learning about our Solar System, light and infrared, then design a powerful space telescope.

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Using Discovery Diaries

Discovery Diaries are a truly adaptable teaching resource. Educators can use them in a number of different ways – either working with the physical book or exploring and downloading the digital content on this website. Using our search filters, you can even draw resources from all our different programmes, to fully tailor lessons to your other teaching activities. Designed for maximum flexibility, you can experience our activities chapter-by-chapter or as single standalone lessons.

Explore the resources →

Cross-Curricular Learning

To make STEM accessible to all students – regardless of their interests or abilities – each Discovery Diary activity incorporates several subject areas. This provides an entry point for every child, fostering confidence in STEM while developing literacy, history, geography, design, art and PSHE skills. Similarly, all activities are multimodal to cater to the diverse learning styles and preferences within a classroom or learning environment.

Each programme includes individual Curriculum Guides for England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales, to support educators across the UK. You can download these, along with a range of other resources, from the Teacher Toolkit.

Visit the Teacher Toolkit →

Do I need to register online?

You don’t need to register to download the Discovery Diaries activities or teaching resources but there are a few perks to signing up.

Benefits for registered users:

  • Bookmark activities, so you can find them quickly and easily in the ‘Favourites’ section of your account
  • Hear about free book lotteries first, so you can enter the draw to receive class sets of books for your school, completely free of charge
  • Exclusive access to bonus content including eBooks
  • Access to competitions with prizes to motivate learners
  • Regular newsletters with special new content, features to inspire and ideas to share
  • Get discounted CPD

Our Partners

Our space-themed Discovery Diary programmes and their teaching resources were made possible by the generous support of our partner organisations, as part of their education outreach. Funding from these programmes allows us to make these resources available to all educators for free, fostering an engagement and ongoing interest in STEM for primary students.

The Space Diary and the Mars Diary are supported by the UK Space Agency. Thanks to the UK Space Agency, over 67,000 students received free printed Diaries, 20,000 of which were provided to children in the UK’s most deprived areas.

The Deep Space Diary is supported the Science & Technology Facilities Council. This support has provided 15,000 copies of this exciting diary about the James Webb Space Telescope to students in the UK’s most deprived areas.

Thanks to the Welsh Government, the UK Space Agency and the Science & Technology Facilities Council, all three space-themed diaries and their support resources were translated into Welsh. This support also provided 3,000 copies of the Welsh Diaries to Welsh-medium schools, so that students in Wales can learn about the space sector and engage with STEM without a language barrier.