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Marketing and University Communication UW-Green Bay, CL 815 2420 Nicolet Drive Green Bay, WI 54311-7001 (920) 465-2626 E-mail: hildebrs@uwgb.edu Last update: 9/26/07 |
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In
the News Archive - Year:
July 2, 2005 Area students give rocket science a ride Space exploration topic of UWGB summer program By Rowena Vergara
It may sound all too surreal. For Raiche, who desires to be an astronaut in the future, her days at the Space Experience Camp at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, really were as close to her dreams as she had imagined.
"This whole week I've been living my dream and I don't really want it to end," Raiche said.
Raiche and about 40 other aspiring engineers, scientists and astronauts, participated in a camp taught by instructors from Space Education Initiatives, a nonprofit organization based in Green Bay. It was the first space camp of its kind put together by the group and next year they hope to bring in 100 eager and curious young minds.
Although the students range in age from 11 to 17 and come from different schools across the state, they have one main thing in common: "We all share the same interest in science," Raiche said.
Here, students were introduced to the sciences in ways they may not have been exposed to during the school year. Space Education Initiatives instructors based activities around hands-on learning to show them how science works in real-life situations.
"Science is much more than it is in a textbook," said Eric Brunsell, director of educational programming for the group.
The students also went on a scavenger hunt using a Global Positioning System or GPS and heard talks from UWGB earth science professor Steven Dutch and retired astronaut Mark Lee. Lee fielded questions about possible careers in the space sciences and what degrees to seek in order to obtain a job at NASA.
"I was kinda' confused on how to get to my career and he kinda' cleared things up," said 15-year-old Hunter Zillmer of Hartland, who is familiar with designing and building shuttles and would like to attend a college with a top space program.
On Friday, the camp culminated with the launching of their personally designed air rockets and water rockets. Tools to build the rockets included plastic two-liter pop bottles, poster board, ping-pong balls, scissors, a hot-glue gun and sandpaper. The rest was up to their imagination.
Each rocket was filled halfway with water. When it came time to release them, the students packed their rockets with compressed air from a bike pump. With a pull of a string, away they went, as high as 300 feet at a rate of about 150 feet per second, Brunsell said.
Miguel Haro, 14, of Green Bay would like to become an astronaut or work in a space station because he is curious about the universe as a whole.
"It's knowing that there's something else out there," he said about recent shuttles that were launched into space to discover what more exists beyond the Earth.
"It's just a wonder that nobody can ever figure out ... To be the first person to ever find this stuff, you'd be like famous," Haro said.
Instructor Jim Schmidt hopes the camp will inspire more students to continue their interests and also inspire new students to join next year.
"I think we have a lot of talented people in this state, and I hope these kids can become a part of that," Schmidt said. "These kids don't realize that they're doing engineering, but they really are. When they're doing different models, they're learning more than they ever could out of a textbook. Kids are thinking about aerodynamics and they don't even know it," he said.
About the program
The five-day program concluded Friday at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. In the program, participants met with research scientists and aerospace professionals, conducted space science experiments and participated in space-flight simulations.
Space Experience cadets designed, built and tested their own space mission, including working with rockets, heat shields and recovery systems.
In addition, cadets trained to use a solar telescope, navigated using the space-based Global Positioning System and received cadet astronaut training.
Students in grades 7 through 12 participated.
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