Community Colleges to Participate in NASA Aerospace Event

According to a press release from NASA, 40 community college students from across the United States have been selected to travel to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL, to participate in the 2012 National Community College Aerospace Scholars (CCAS) project. The three-day event will feature a rover-building experience.

The students, representing 18 states, will form fictional companies pursuing Mars exploration. Each team will develop, design, and build a prototype rover, then use their prototypes to navigate a course, collect rocks and water, and return to a home base. The event includes a tour of Marshall and briefings from agency scientists and engineers.

"The CCAS program allows students to take what they have learned in the classroom and augment it with realistic, hands-on experience," says Leland Melvin, associate administrator for education at NASA Headquarters. "They will tackle some of the same challenges faced by NASA scientists and engineers every day. By the end of their experience, they will have developed valuable skills for future high-tech careers."

The program is based on the Texas Aerospace Scholars project, originally created in partnership with NASA and the Texas educational community. NASA Aerospace Scholars programs are designed to encourage students to consider careers in science and engineering and eventually join the nation's technical workforce. Participants in the national project were selected based on completion of interactive web-based assignments throughout the school year.