'Blast Camp' gives students lessons on space travel

FREMONT - Local students had a blast this week learning about space travel at a summer camp at Vanguard Career Center in Fremont.

The theme for the four-day "Blast Camp," according to Vanguard Assistant Principal Clay Frye, was space.

Frye said 95 students, entering grades five through eight from local schools, were able to attend free of charge, thanks to a $20,000 grant obtained by the United Way of Sandusky County.

The camp was broken into seven mini camps offering students an opportunity to learn about NASA and what it takes to travel in space.

"The first thing we asked the kids is what they think it takes to send a rocket into space," Frye said. "Most said fuel, or a rocket. It's not just a countdown and a push of a button, but some didn't realize it takes engineers, welders and mechanics to launch a rocket."

Many of the jobs needed to build, send and maintain rockets in space are skilled trades that can be learned at schools like Vanguard, which specialize in skilled trade programs such as engineering, robotics and mechanical skills that it takes to build rockets.

In one group, students were given the controls to fly a drone through a course and land on a pad, to would simulate what NASA is using to send drones into space rather than more dangerous and expensive manned space flight.

Austin Dix, a 17-year-old Gibsonburg High School student, showed campers how to operate the drone, and then how to navigate through obstacles before landing the craft.

"NASA is using drones a lot on Mars, and here we are teaching them the basics of how to fly drones," Dix said.

Jennie McCoy, a medical career teacher at Vanguard, taught students about zero gravity and the effects it has on astronauts. 

"When there is no gravity, all the liquids move up from your feet to your head," McCoy said. "Your head swells, your tongue swells and you lose your taste buds."

McCoy had the students blindfolded, their noses pinched and drop different tastes like salty, sweet and sour on the students' tongues to see if students could taste what they were swallowing.

The summer camp is the first at Vanguard, something Frye said he would like to continue in the future.

"We've hosted winter camps for the last three years and we really want to do a summer camp each year," Frye said.

The camp would continue educating students in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, or STEM courses, and coincide with programs offered to students at Vanguard.

"A lot of these aren't aware of what we offer, so we are trying to expose them to these careers and the education that they can get at Vanguard," Frye said.  

cshoup@gannett.com

419-334-1035

Twitter: @CraigShoupNH