The Challenger Learning Center is an annual field trip for 8th graders to participate in the Mission to Mars Project, as well as experience the Planetarium and Robotics. The field trip provides an experience that connects us to past students and is something the 7th graders prepare for and look forward to when they become 8th graders. The benefits are many. This experience helps students learn about teamwork and problem solving. Additionally students are provided with the opportunity to perform hands-on learning regarding the space subjects discussed in class. Personally, my favorite part of the field trip was getting to work with other students and being relied on and responsible for other people. I was the Communicator, but there were other jobs like Bio, Robotics, Life Systems, and Navigation. I liked getting to talk into the microphone and getting to work with the other teams. Half of the teams were in mission control and the other half were in space. Halfway through we switched so everyone had both experiences! When my half of the team went to space it was really refreshing to get a different perspective on the mission. I really enjoyed doing many things at once. When instructions were clear, it was easier to get into the mission and easy to start. On the other hand, the part of the mission that was more difficult was getting others to listen to me at first. Once we began working as a team and the others began to rely on me the mission was much smoother. There were three important things I learned. First, I learned that you have to rely on others, you cannot do everything yourself. Second, the medical person is vital to a successful mission. Without the medic everyone would likely die from radiation poisoning. It is a full time job to monitor the team's health. Finally, without the weather team the mission could suffer catastrophic failure with the possibility of incoming asteroid contact. The planetarium was also amazing. We could view the stars from Colorado at the same time we could view them from Pluto. It was interesting that the perspective doesn't change. The Robot maze activity was equally awesome. I realized there are endless possibilities of what you can do with a robot. I think it's so cool that there is so much we can do.
Written by: Audrey Garrett
