Twenty one lucky students from the Cambridge Public School, HSR Layout, had the opportunity of a lifetime to visit the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) in the US.
Adarsh, a class 9 student whose team won the educational tour, said: “That was the best moment for me. We were given a set of devices and an egg. The challenge was to make sure the egg did not break when dropped and we managed it.”
On the first day at Nasa, the students attended a lecture as part of the orientation. On the days that followed, they received hands-on experience about rocket models and launching. “We experienced what it’s like to be inside a space shuttle. We saw a real space shuttle that was recently developed,” Adarsh told Deccan Herald.
For Apoorva, a class 8 student, the trip was inspiring and knowledgable. “We went on a space walk. We could climb up a ladder and experience zero gravity while coming down,” she recalled. Apoorva also said they were taught about rocket model making and to aim and launch them. A hands-on training was what the children needed and they got it all on the trip, said Uma Venkataraman, HoD, History, Civics and Geography, at the school.
Her attempt to make the trip a reality began the previous academic year. “It was a daunting task. Having to arrange for passports and visas and numerous interactions with students and parents was a tedious process. However, the experience there helped us forget it all. It is an experience of a lifetime,” she said. She said the students were acclimatised to an astronaut’s lifestyle, they wore space suits and even got to have lunch with an astronaut.
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