NASA Astro Camps

On June 13th and 14th AGSS hosted our fourth NASA Astrocamp at the Pacific Beach and Logan Heights Library in collaboration with The Clueless FTC and NASA. Our woman in STEM was Annie Easley, one of the first African American women at NASA, and a character in the renowned movie Hidden Figures.

First, we introduced the ideas of NASA’s Mission Patches and how NASA makes a new mission patch for each mission. We also discussed how to interpret mission patches and how each element comes together to form a bigger idea. This information was used for the girls making their mission patches, with their table groups, and they got super fun pins to take home.
Then we talked about how NASA Astronauts need a lot of dexterity because they have to do meticulous tasks with pressurized gloves. To simulate this, the girls had to build a puzzle with only one gloved hand, and worked together with their table group, where half was assigned “A” pieces of the puzzle, and the other half assigned “B” pieces to practice collaboration. The fastest two teams won candy and other super fun prizes!

On Friday, our guest speaker was Lauren Williams, a Robotics Education Specialist for NASA Astrocamp and a high school FRC (FIRST Robotics Competition) coach who’s been interested in robotics since elementary school. On Saturday, our guest speaker was Spencer Wells, a NASA Engineering Technician. He told the kids his story, which was super inspiration. He talked about how he was born on a tobacco farm in a small town in Kentucky, and how he went through many experiences before ending up at NASA. The kids were super curious and asked so many questions, which both of our speakers answered exceptionally. 
After a snack break with cookies and bananas, we talked about launch platforms for rockets. These platforms need to be really strong to hold the weight of the rocket, astronaut, and materials. But, they also need to be light enough to be mobile and move from the building to the launch site. Then, the participants got to build their own little launch platform out of cardboard, straws, and tape. They then had to count the number of M&Ms the launch platform could hold in a cup before collapsing, in order to see how strong their mobile platform was. Some of the launch platforms were able to hold a laptop or a full waterbottle!!

In preparation for the next activity, we talked about the spacesuits that astronauts wear and how important the materials used are, especially in space where little debris are hitting you. To test and apply these principles, the participants dropped marbles of various sizes from different heights on a box, wrapped taut with other materials. They tracked their findings on a worksheet in order to determine the best (strongest) material.

Our last and final activity was inspired by the Mars rovers, such as Perseverance and Curiosity. We had a short lecture on how useful the rovers are to NASA, and why they are so important. The participants applied these concepts in order to build their own moving rover out of cardboard, using a rubber band to spin the axles and make the wheels move. 

These camps were two days of so much fun, and we can't wait to continue hosting them in the future! Our next workshop will be in September, so until then, have a great summer!!