CEWA students – astronauts in the making!
02 May 2017
St Norbert College Year 11 student Melisse Burgoyne prepares to train at NASA’s Advanced Space Academy.
Exploring the stars no longer seems out of reach for 28 lucky St Norbert College students who trained at NASA’s Advanced Space Academy in the USA last month.
The five-day course at the Space Academy was the highlight of St Norbert College’s inaugural science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) tour. For the students, it was a valuable experience.
“The trip was an experience unlike any other, it was fun, and constantly had things happening, but most of all it was out of this world,” Year 12 student, Jake Cummane said.
“I learnt a lot about space, such as how it is that we travel to space and survive, and also how it is that we intend to reach Mars.”
For Year 11 student, Seymour Gumba, having the opportunity to experience a vast range of activities in state-of-the-art facilities made the trip “unforgettable”.
“There were so many valuable things I learnt through the camp,” she said. “We learnt a lot about space history, space medicine, rocketry, the importance of each position in a mission, the International Space Station and all the space agencies around the world.”
During the camp, the students built and launched a rocket, took part in simulated space missions and participated in astronaut training, experiencing life without gravity both in the air and underwater, applying scientific concepts such as acceleration, gravity, and Newton’s laws of motion.
The inaugural STEM tour at St Norbert is an outstanding example of the ways CEWA schools can strengthen and further STEM education, enabling students to share the enthusiasm and challenges of these subjects with the wider community.
Head of Mathematics at St Norbert College, Bridget Murphy, who accompanied the students on the tour with two other teachers, said it was an overwhelming success.
“It was a joy for us teachers to be part of the inaugural STEM tour and to see how much the students benefited from the whole experience” she said.
