Mission ot Houston for the Careers Scotland Space School
A group of young Scottish scientists will fly out to Texas tomorrow (1 Sep 2006) on a trip of a lifetime, the eighth mission of the Careers Scotland Space School to NASA's Space Center in Houston.
Twenty six students from across Scotland will depart from Glasgow Airport to spend ten days with a team of NASA astronauts, scientists and engineers. Back home, friends and family of the Space School participants can track their experiences online, on a daily video log that the youngsters will produce themselves.
They are all participants of the Careers Scotland Space School, a world-leading programme supported by the Scottish Executive and the International Space Community. The initiative aims to inspire young people, help them understand how science and technology can lead to exciting career choices and encourage more students to study science related courses.
In Houston, the young people will experience the excitement of being at the centre of operations for a space flight, as their trip to the NASA Space Center coincides with the Space Shuttle Atlantis’s mission to the International Space Station. The shuttle’s space flight has been delayed due to Tropical Storm Ernesto, but is expected to launch next week.
The students have been chosen to attend the Space School after successfully completing a programme of distance learning, developed by NASA and Careers Scotland to supplement studies in Higher Grade physics, chemistry, biology and maths.
Working with NASA astronauts and scientists, the students will spend their time behind the scenes of space exploration and involved in a full timetable of space related learning activities. For ten hectic activity-filled days they will be stretched to the limit by a mixture of lectures, workshops, group tasks, assignments and tours of NASA's facilities.
The group will visit the historic Mission Control used in the Apollo moon landings, experience the thrill to work in NASA laboratories and meet a host of inspirational figures from the space programme.
Alex Blackwood, head of enterprise in education, Careers Scotland, said:
“Careers Scotland is committed to supporting the Scottish Executive’s Science Strategy and we run a number of initiatives that support its aims; our flagship programme is the Careers Scotland Space School an initiative that is frequently described as a life-changing experience. Not only will the young people develop their skills in science and technology but they will also increase their confidence, motivation and self-belief."
“Early indications suggest that the Space School is making a difference to the levels of interest in and the uptake of science among young people in Scotland. In fact more than 80 per cent of participants of the Space School have now gone on, or intend to go on, to study science, technology, engineering and maths at university.”
The Space School participants will film and produce an online diary that will be published on a daily basis on the Careers Scotland Space School website. Chart their progress on the daily log from Monday 4 September.
31/08/06
