BY SARA GREENE
Leader staff writer
IN SHORT: Students at space camp learn about all forms of flight -- even those that end up in a tree.
Last week marked the 10th annual Junior Space Camp held at Southside Elementary in Cabot.
“They’ll keep coming back to Junior Space Camp as long as it’s offered,” said Joe Mullins, father of Justin, 9, and Presley, 7.
“I liked space camp because we made a vest, a helmet with a bunch of stickers and because we used Coke bottles and sacks,” Presley wrote in an essay about Junior Space Camp.
The weeklong camp offered either morning or afternoon sessions for about 40 kindergarten through fourth-grade students who used the opportunity to learn about planets, constellations, life in space and the history of flight through a variety of hands-on activities.
For example, while learning about how meteors and comets pick up space debris while traveling, students used scoops of ice to represent the comets and toppings such as candy sprinkles, marshmallows, cherries and nuts to represent forms of space debris.
“My favorite part of Junior Space Camp was when we made ice cream (meteors) out of nuts, cherries, syrup and marshmallows,” said Greer King, 7.
For other projects, students put together balsa-wood airplanes and made model rockets out of cardboard and empty plastic soda bottles.
“I made a vest out of a sack and Coke bottles. We pretended it was a space mobility unit,” wrote Spenser Mull, 8.
Garrett Pace, 8, and Joshua Bennett, 9, said their favorite project was making “moon mud” out of glue, water, Borax and food coloring. Jay King, nine-and-a-half, preferred making a star hanger. Star hangers are mobiles made out of straws, paper and paper clips.
“I was the first one to figure it out,” King said.
Bill Johnson and Jim Ault of Mid-Arkansas Radio Control Flyers and the Academy of Model Aeronautics talked to the children about model airplanes and the basics of how airplanes work while flying diesel and electric model airplanes behind the school. Johnson and Ault have been conducting the demonstration at Junior Space Camp for the past five years.
“We made new and extraordinary friends and helped people along the way,” said Victoria Glockzin, 8.
Cade Goreley, 9, wrote that he enjoyed learning about Planet X, a recently discovered planet beyond Pluto.
Members of the Cabot Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, led by Col. Bobby Coe, met with the students to discuss building functional model rockets. They followed the discussion with the launch of several model rockets.
“I like space camp because I like space and science,” said Kirk Woodward, 8. Although the focus of the camp is science the lessons involve all aspects of learning including math, literacy and creativity.
“I’m a big promoter of math and science for girls and I see more girls attending Junior Space Camp every year,” said organizer Terry Donham, a kindergarten teacher at Southside Elementary.
