Back in the mid 70s, when I was 11 or 12, I first got interested in astronomy. There were not many magazines on the subject - I knew of Sky and Telescope, but it was hard to get hold of in England - so I wasn't able to get much up-to-date information.

Then I discovered the Open University. They broadcast science programmes, some of which were about space travel and astronomy. One very good one was about the moon. The speaker was talking about lunar geology, landing sites and so on. Then suddenly he said, "This is where I landed." I realised he was an actual Apollo astronaut! (Almost certainly Harrison Schmidt.)

So I kept watching Open University broadcasts whenever I got the chance. They weren't often about astronomy, but it was worth watching just in case, not least because sometimes the other subjects were interesting in their own right.

One I watched was about catastrophe theory. They showed a graph that resembled a crashing wave. I understood very little about it then, and I still don't know much about it now... But the seeds were planted, and whenever I hear the term used, I tell myself I will find out more. Now I am planning on enrolling on an Open University maths course, so I will finally get around to it.

I also saw a few OU broadcasts about relativity. They were clearly not designed for my age group, but I did get something out of them.

So for all we know, there might be a fair few children coming onto BAUT and gaining more of an understanding of tensors and manifolds than we expect. And maybe many more aren't understanding it but are nonetheless intrigued, and in later life they might welcome their early exposure to it.