Science-mad pupils were over the moon to meet a former NASA director.

Six students from Thornton Grammar School had the chance to hear George Abbey speak about the importance of science, technology, maths and engineering at an event organised by Bradford's Centre for Learning Excellence (CLE).

Mr Abbey was a director at the NASA Johnson's Space Centre for a decade.

Teachers and businesses involved with CLE were also invited to the event, where a presentation about engineering was heard before Mr Abbey spoke. He said: "I think when I was growing up aviation was really making great advancements and I was really attracted to that."

"I felt the right way to get involved in aviation was to get a degree that allowed me to go into aviation and flight and then into space." Mr Abbey said it was vital to get younger generations enthused and involved in engineering, maths and technology in order for Britain and the US to stay involved with future aeronautical developments.

Mr Abbey was shown a school science project created by pupils for F1 Schools international motor racing competition.

The competition challenges teams to design and manufacture F1 cars powered by carbon dioxide.

Pupils from Thornton Grammar are selected to take part after a year in the school.

Year seven pupils Charlotte Hague and Selma Mkesedzic, both 12 and from Allerton, said they were looking forward to the F1 challenge.

Charlotte said: "We are going to be making cars and stuff. We will be trying to build models and set them off and make them work."

Jordan McDonald, 12, from Clayton, said he was pleased to be involved in the science event and was looking forward to having a go at more science and engineering projects in the future.