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Jessica Arenas is a Wonder Woman of Social Media shenanigans for NASA SC Space Grant & Cardio Kickboxing Queen at GRIT BOX Fitness.
Like most kids, I dreamed about going to outer space. Unlike most Asian kids, I wasn’t good at math – which meant I wasn’t good at science. Basically, I probably would not have a chance at flying to the moon.
But does the dream stop there? Definitely not. Because now, we can bring the moon to us.
I have been working for the NASA South Carolina Space Grant Consortium for a little over 4 months. Little did I know that quite the organization existed in Charleston, S.C. An organization you would think Clemson University or UofSC would acquire - but nope, College of Charleston gets to have this piece of the pie!
What is NASA SC Space Grant Consortium? NASA SCSGC makes an impact on STEM engagement in our city of Charleston & the state of South Carolina. It is a national network of colleges and universities that work to expand opportunities for Americans, especially students, to understand and participate in NASA’s aeronautics and space projects by supporting and enhancing science and engineering education, research and public outreach efforts.
With many amazing outreach efforts under their belt – in my opinion, the most incredible outreach effort the SCSGC has done is the first Apollo Next Giant Leap Robotics Camp a.k.a SC ANGLeS. The SC ANGLeS Camp prepared students for the national challenge. The Challenge celebrates the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 by giving students in underserved communities the chance to recreate the moon landing using drones and robots. NASA SCSGC was selected to be the hub that would host students from North Carolina, South Carolina + Puerto Rico.
On June 24th-27th, the Military Magnet Academy hosted students from all parts of Charleston to learn drone flight and robotic coding - they also learned the history of the moon, crater formation and missions to the moon.
Working with humans half my age got me spent! While making sure the camp functioned as it should, I almost missed the big picture.
“I don’t like the basketball part, but I like the STEM part,” Anthony Leonard, real Robotics Camp student – not an actor.
With sleepy eyes, I instantly woke up and was astounded that our supposed-to-be basketball camper joined the dark side. The STEM dark side. I mean, the STEM side had snacks. ;) For four days, I was honored to watch these middle-school aged students in the Lowcountry build replicas of the lunar module and learn how to use a remote-controlled drone to land it on an 8-by-10-foot map of the moon’s surface. Students also learned how to modify and program a Lego Mindstorms EV3 robot to explore the lunar surface and bring back a rock sample to the starting line.
How about that - why settle for the moon being up in the sky when you can bring it down to Earth!
Despite a typical summer camp’s ups and downs behind-the-scenes – it was amazing to see a selfless group of adults come together for these students. The diverse group was made up of a Computer Science teacher, Geologist, Mathematician, Engineers and Marketing maven. Each person brought a different skill to the table that helped ignite passions for STEM and more.
“This is such a great thing for the students. I’m looking forward to seeing these students get together & have a good time applying these skills... I look forward to this event being the first of many more to come.” –Carla Ferrette-Clark, TSgt (US Air Force Reserve), CTE Instructor of Information Technology at Military Magnet Academy (basically, Wonder Woman)
Student teams from the Lowcountry and North Carolina will test out their flight and robot management skills on Thursday, July 18 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Military Magnet Academy. Both MMA and NASA SCSGC would like to invite the general public to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission with NASA through STEM activities and by watching the student teams compete for the grand prize – an all expenses paid trip to Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas.
Until then, I wish these teams the best of luck and hope that they always remember - all you need is one small step for the next giant leap.
For more information about SC ANGLeS Student Challenge head to https://scspacegrant.cofc.edu/scangles.