Ever planned a mission to Mars?
This summer, about 160 students from high schools across the state will do just that.
The students, participating in the Washington Aerospace Scholars program, will converge on the Museum of Flight prepared to launch an exploration of Mars.
Ultimately, though, “we want our students to understand career possibilities,” said Melissa Edwards, administrator of the program.
Those prospects include careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics — a quartet of subjects in which this country is producing too few graduates. The impending flood of retirements in the aerospace field has Washington state government and industry officials concerned.
The Washington Aerospace Scholars program was started in 2006, with the first students coming to the Museum of Flight for a one-week program during the summer of 2007.
“They start in December with online lessons” through NASA, Edwards said.
Roughly 250 students begin the online lessons. Eventually, the field is narrowed down to 160 scholars. Each week for a month, four 10-scholar teams work with a professional mentor as well as recruited teachers and college students to devise a trip to Mars.
The students also take excursions to places like the Boeing Co.’s widebody jet factory in Everett or the University of Washington’s engineering lab. They participate in engineering challenges and listen to speakers from the industry.
By the end of this year, the Washington Aerospace Scholars program will have had 500 students go through its summer program. When they first enroll, one of the biggest challenges is explaining what an engineer does, Edwards said.
“We obviously feel there’s a huge need in the engineering field,” she said.
One of the program’s priorities is to track student alumni progress as the scholars progress to college. About 70 percent of the alumni report in. Of the scholars from the 2007 and 2008 programs, roughly 74 percent of the students who responded said they plan to go into science, technology, engineering or math, Edwards said.
“We feel pretty good about the results,” she said.
For more on the Washington Aerospace Scholars program, visit www.museumofflight.org/washingtonaerospacescholars
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