Vassalboro educator takes part in space camp

Vassalboro Community School teacher Breanne Desmond recently took part in the Honeywell Educators at Space Academy, in Huntsville, Alabama.

Vassalboro Community School teacher Breanne Desmond recently attended the camp in Alabama. Those selected to attend participated in 45 hours of classroom and laboratory instruction focused on science, space exploration and leadership skills development, including:

• A high-performance jet simulation
• Rocketry and a new coding mission to launch them
• Scenario-based space mission
• Land and water survival training
• Interactive flight dynamics programs

The one thing they all have in common – they’re on a mission to learn new ways to bring science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) to the classroom next fall.

But why? Only 16 percent of high school seniors are interested in pursuing STEM, according to the Department of Education, yet the National Science Foundation states 80% of available jobs in the next several years will require some math and science skills. HESA aims to re-ignite teachers’ passions for STEM and encourage students to seek a STEM career.

The teacher will be among more than 200 teachers from 33 countries and 45 U.S. states and territories accepted into the Honeywell Educators at Space Academy (HESA) for 2017.

Created by Honeywell and U.S. Space & Rocket Center (USSRC) in 2004, HESA is a scholarship program that inspires middle school math and science teachers to become more effective educators in STEM.

More than three million students have been reached and inspired by 2,776 math and science HESA alumni from 62 countries and 52 U.S. states and territories since 2004.