July 25, 2002
Four students from Langston Hughes Middle School recently returned from a six-day trip to Space Camp in Huntsville, Ala., courtesy of TRW.
Marly Flores, Jamin McClain, Annamarie Roszco, and Rebecca Morris were chosen by their peers and teachers at Langston Hughes based on their interest and academic standing.
TRW, headquartered in Reston, provides technology products and services for the aerospace, information systems and automotive markets. For seven years, the TRW Foundation has given outstanding students with an interest in math and science full scholarships to Space Camp, covering travel, tuition, and room and board. This year the company also funded trips for children from Las Vegas, Albuquerque, Portland, and other cities in which it has a corporate presence. Loren Days, TRW employee, said that the company has a "commitment to corporate citizenship" and an investment in the Reston community.
Kohann Whitney, TRW's Space Camp coordinator and a Reston resident, chose Langston Hughes as one of the schools this year based on her familiarity with it as a parent. "I knew it was a good school," she said. When asked how and why TRW became involved with the Space Camp program, Whitney and Days both answered that TRW, as a heavily technology-based company, has a strong interest in promoting math and science education and enthusiasm for these subjects in schools.
WHILE IN HUNTSVILLE, the students were given the opportunity to participate in two mock missions. Campers were taught propulsion and rocket construction and learned about space suits and how to operate complicated instruments. They were exposed to the unique physical conditions of space in zero gravity and trained in micro-gravity simulators to produce the sensation of walking on the moon's surface.
When asked about their favorite Space Camp activity, both Flores and McClain described the mock missions and role-playing activities; Flores played a payload specialist who did experiments in the spacelab and a weather and tracking expert who reported to Mission Control. The students were given roles, instructions and scripts, and played out entertaining and educational scenarios, learning about specific jobs in the space program. They were there to learn "not just the science of it but the responsibilities of the various people in the space program, on the ground and in the sky," said Whitney.
Seventh grader Jamin McClain didn't know what to expect of space camp. "It didn't really meet my expectations; it was better," said Jamin "I wanted it to be longer." Going to Space Camp didn't sway McClain's plans for the future — he wants to be an engineer — but it did influence his thinking in other ways. "It changed my opinion on space; there's more out there," he said. "I am definitely going back for their advanced camp next summer."