A visit to space camp has nurtured a dream among the students of Innisfree House School to become astronauts. They are excited that they will board a space shuttle some day. Recently, a group of 30 students of the school participated in the NASA Space Camp. It was “truly an out of the world experience” for them as one student put it.
Action-packed
In the Space Camp, students had the opportunity to engage in zero gravity exercises, experience a simulated space journey where they were required to mend the space craft. A simulated rocket launch was also part of the exercise with a simulated ignition and take off.
Since team spirit and team work is a crucial part of any space mission, the participants were asked to go through a team building exercise where each team was assigned a flight engineer, flight commander, flight navigator, doctor. As a part of the team building exercise, the participants had to also judge individual capabilities in the interest of the team and enable the right moves to allow individual teams to succeed.
Lessons learnt
Again, as a part of team management, at the end of each activity, the participants were required to take stock of what went wrong or right. This helped them in understanding their mistakes and it was also a self realisation. In specific cases, the participants had to redo an activity or rectify a particular mistake, so that the task was perfect when completed.
Time management formed a crucial part of the Camp, with timings for each activity followed with military precision.
For instance, a meal time would be 20 minutes and had to be strictly adhered to even to the point of leaving an unfinished plate and moving on to the next designated activity.
“I had an amazing time during my trip to NASA. It was very educational. We also experienced weightlessness and the feeling of being in space due to many simulators. It was a unique and an unforgettable experience,” said Varsha Kishore, a student.
“It was a wonderful experience unlike any other we've ever had. The most valuable lesson I learnt was not about space shuttles or rockets, it was in working with others; a lesson we'll need to apply everyday,” added Neeraja Kulkarni.
