Students Celebrate Space Week with Rover Drop
Thu May 8 2008
Students at Buckhannon (WV) Upshur Middle School celebrated Space Week with a number of activities organized by the Challenger Learning Center® at the Center for Educational Technologies®.
Jackie Shia, director of the Challenger Learning Center, led the students in an activity simulating the landing of a Mars rover. The students made their rovers using recycled products and then placed a water balloon inside to see if their engineering designs could effectively protect their cargo. The test? The students dropped the rovers—parachute attached—from a high location and tried to hit a target below with the cargo intact.
Around 100 students took part in the activities.
The Challenger Learning Center in Wheeling is one of 51 centers worldwide established by the Challenger Center for Space Science in memory of the space shuttle Challenger. More than 40,000 students fly missions each year either at the Wheeling facility or through distance learning. The Challenger Learning Center has been honored nine years for having served the most children of all the centers.
