“Just knowing the right thing isn’t enough,” Cawthray said. We’re asking them to work in teams and develop those soft skills that they really need to get jobs later on. But what we ask them to do is not purely academic. They might be the big fish in their school academically. “These are the students who are great at school. “I think the students love being pushed,” said Ian Cawthray, education program coordinator for Virginia Space Grant Consortium, which runs the VASTS program with NASA. Leading up to that session, interns and NASA Langley personnel coached them and handed out tough criticism. Near the end of the week, students offered their plans up for critique by a panel of professionals from private industry and NASA Langley. And the folks here at NASA are so willing to share information. “They get their hands on real-world problems. “It’s so realistic,” said Bill Davidson, a Fauquier County high school teacher who came to Langley to help guide the VASTS students. Groups of students were assigned to teams focused on five areas of responsibility: Human Factors, Mission Transit, Mission Integration, Science and Surface Operations and Strategic Communications. The academy, held as three separate one-week sessions in June and July, organized students into teams based on NASA’s tried-and-true method of mission planning.
Gradually, I got used to the work environment and the time pressure. “I wasn’t as outspoken as a lot of the others. “At first, I was very reserved and I felt as if I didn’t have a lot to contribute,” she said. Stephanie Phan, 16, from Lorton, described VASTS as a growing experience. “There was lots of stress, lots of long nights, but it did work out. “It was definitely really rewarding,” Rehan said.
The students also produced a slick animated video showing a lander safely reaching the planet’s surface. He and his fellow students had hammered together a set of plans for man’s conquest of Mars that included everything from international laws governing space exploration to propulsion systems, radiation risks and billion dollar budgets. Rehan Buddeliyanage, 16, from the Northern Virginia community of Sterling, sounded proud at the end of his weeklong session. But handed that big challenge, many of these 16- and 17-year-old students accomplished more than they could have imagined. Interplanetary travel is a fiendishly difficult task even for the experts. The scholars worked feverishly over a few frenzied days and long nights, coming up with detailed plans for an imagined mission to Mars. The Virginia Aerospace Science and Technology Scholars academy, VASTS for short, invited about 175 rising seniors to Langley for a unique and demanding educational experience. The teens didn’t come for fun and games at some science-soaked camp, though. High school students from across Virginia rushed to NASA’s Langley Research Center this summer, eager for an exciting week of learning about science, engineering and space.
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