HAMPTON, Va. – After spending six months learning and communicating via the web, more than 140 rising seniors from across Virginia will finish an intensive distance-learning program by attending weeklong summer academies onsite at NASA Langley Research Center.
The Virginia Aerospace Science and Technology Scholars (VASTS) program is an interactive, on-line science, technology, engineering and mathematics learning experience that offers selected students workforce experience as well as college credit. This year is the program’s third year and because of its success a third weeklong academy was added to the schedule this year to allow more students to participate. The academies will be held June 26-July 2, July 10-16 and July 24-30.
While at NASA, scholars will use what they learned on-line by designing and implementing plans for a human journey to Mars. They will also tour various facilities, build and test robots and talk with NASA scientists, engineers and technologists.
The Virginia Aerospace Science and Technology Scholars program is modeled after a distance-learning program designed at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Texas. The Virginia program is managed by the Virginia Space Grant Consortium.
