If I had to describe the first day of this camp with one word I would use: disappointing. On July 17th I woke up at 5:55am to make sure we arrived on time (8:00am) and my parents drove me 105 miles round trip. We sat in the theater watching “The Magic School Bus” (Netflix) until 9:00am. After sitting there for a while we finally started our day. We headed toward the bathrooms and spent quite a long time waiting for all the age groups (12-14, 9-11, and I think 5-6) to do their business. Everyone got onto the tram and we started the 45 minute tour. The majority of the time was just driving. I heard some of the descriptions from loudspeaker recording but it was difficult to hear due to the kids talking and the cars on the road. We stopped at one building (the astronaut training facility) and got to see the where astronauts practice and learn before actually going into space. We also got to observe people testing equipment. I did enjoy this part a lot though.
After the tour, we headed to the classrooms. I had taken a camp at NASA before ( and I liked the classrooms. This time we were in a different area which wasn’t as impressive. Mainly because of the 9 year olds next door making a lot of noise. Most of us couldn’t hear anything. Our instructors introduced themselves but didn’t really tell us what we would be doing for the coming week. They told us to find someone with similar colored shoes and get to know each other.
Next, we started an activity called “Saving Fred”. I saw four paper clips and a plastic cup on the table and hoped that what we were doing would be scientific or related to Mars somehow. Instead, a gummy worm and a lifesaver candy was placed on our tables. One of the girls next to me said “Oh! I remember this.. I did this in sixth grade”. How did “Saving Fred” have something to do with Mars? Yes, it was about teamwork but I’m pretty sure almost everyone already knew how to get the lifesaver around Fred. After saving the little gummy worm, we made some little rockets. At first we were going to be in pairs. Then the instructors changed their minds and said we’ll do one each. It felt disorganized. I was also kind of confused about what making model rockets had to do with living on Mars. Maybe there was a reason but it just wasn’t explained. The instructors didn’t really talk too much about what we were doing and why.
Then came lunch. Most kids paid for lunch, but some brought their own. The other kids’ lunch was basically just a sad looking hot dog, yogurt, water, and chips. I’m quite glad I brought my own food that my mother prepared. 🙂
One of our instructors started to explain our next activity (a scavenger hunt using ipods) but she said, “If the WIFI is working….”. Everyone, including myself, was excited to start but we had to skip it, “because the ipods are having trouble”. The WIFI and the ipods should probably have been tested the day before instead of the day of.
Disappointed, we walked to the Independence Plaza. I think that was just a backup plan in case the Scavenger Hunt didn’t work out. So we got a tour of the plane! To be honest, it was fun, I just didn’t get how it connected with “Building a life-size habitat to live on in Mars”. Again, I would have understood the connection between the two if one of the instructors had explained why visiting the plane was necessary for our Mars project.
We then went to watch a documentary. It was a good documentary but I just would’ve liked more interactive/ hands on projects.
Next we headed back to the classroom where we were handed some snacks in plastic packaging. We watched Netflix (“Brain Games”) of course. Then we moved to another area where we would later be picked up. There, we also watched a show on Netflix.
The whole day felt like daycare. Not many interactive activities other than the model rocket. I just hope that the coming days will be according to theme and more engaging. 🙂
Luckily, the following days were not as terrible as the first!
On the second day of camp, we did thermal and cryogenic tests and we also successfully got to do the scavenger hunt in the Starship Gallery. The hunt was fun but unfortunately all of the ipods were connected to the same account so it wasn’t a competition. We identified Mars rocks on this day too, and learned why geology is important for living on Mars.
I really enjoyed making and testing the heat tiles and capsules. It was really cool to use liquid Nitrogen. Our first heat tile (using the blowtorch to test) burned up in seven seconds whereas our second lasted four minutes and forty nine seconds. Our marshmallow in the capsule (named “Faith 01”) was only half frozen when it came out of the liquid Nitrogen pot.
For the third day we took a tram ride to the Rocket Park. We learned about the structure of a rocket and the Apollo missions. Next, we coded rovers and tried to complete challenges. I liked doing the rovers but I wish we had more time to complete those challenges.
On the second to last day (day four) we finally started designing and creating our Mars habitats. In addition, we also got to try using LittleBits (robotics). Again, it would’ve been better if we had more time to use these. After lunch we had to delay our Mars habitats by (about) an hour because of a Mars Mission Briefing. We got to sit in on the Apollo 17 panel and listen to them talk about their experience on the recovery team (getting the astronauts back to earth safely).
The last day of camp was the best one. We launched rockets and spent most of the day focused on creating and perfecting our habitats. Launching rockets was a lot of fun, however it was quite hot outside. We did have water bottles but they were plastic. It would have been better if the campers were all required to bring their own bottles so we wouldn’t have to use plastic pouches. Today we also got to visit the Historic Mission Control.
My opinions
Although the first day of camp was disappointing and somewhat disorganized, the last few days made up for it. I enjoyed making the Mars Habitat models but I think that we should have started designing them earlier than the day before the last. My favorite activities of the camp were the rovers and making the Mars habitats.
What could be improved?
Instead of trying to cram in so many activities in five days, maybe extend the camp and do one to two activities each day. We didn’t have much time to code our rovers or successfully make anything with the LittleBits. Another thing would be to use less plastic. I noticed that during lunch everyone used plastic utensils and drank from small plastic water bottles (in addition to the plastic water pouches). There were also plastic cups next to the water dispenser. Maybe you shouldn’t even have the water bottles or cups and just ask kids to bring their own water bottles to fill up. NASA has the power to influence kids to be more aware of being green.
Thank you guys so much for reading!
Emma's World 