HAMPTON, Va. – After spending six months learning and communicating via the web, 145 rising high school seniors from across Virginia will finish an intensive distance-learning program by attending week-long summer academies at NASA’s Langley Research Center.
The Virginia Aerospace Science and Technology Scholars (VASTS) program is an interactive, online science, technology, engineering and mathematics learning experience that offers student participants workforce experience as well as college credit. This year is the program’s fourth year, and because of its success a third week-long academy was added to the schedule to allow more scholars to participate. The academies will be held June 25 – July 1, July 9 – 15 and July 23 – 29.
While at NASA, scholars will use what they learned online to design and implement plans for a human mission to Mars. They will also tour various facilities, build and test robotic rovers and talk with NASA scientists, engineers and technologists.
The VASTS program is modeled after the High School Aerospace Scholars program designed at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Texas. The Virginia program is managed by the Virginia Space Grant Consortium.
