Dozens of Fresno County migrant students enjoying a two week space camp at Fresno State

Thursday, June 29, 2017
FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Forty-five migrant students from six different school districts in Fresno County are getting a glimpse of what it's like to work as an astronaut. The 10 day Space Camp at Fresno State is helping students advance their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics skills.

Students get to wearing space suits, gloves, and helmets as they collect data on Martian rock samples. They are being assisted by mission control-- and 13-year-old Carlos Gamez is part of the team. He is responsible for looking at a monitor to help the astronauts navigate through space.

"I've been talking to my partners about what the temperature is, because, like, in outer space astronauts have to exercise two hours a day, so like, their bone structure would be fine and without that they would be unhealthy and not be able to do anything."

Robert Cook is the instructor for the Aerospace Academy at Fresno State. He said the program shows the benefit of working together through challenging tasks.

"While this stuff may seem a little daunting at the front, by the end of the day-- by the end of the two weeks all of these things are real and tangible real science that they are able to know what they are doing but why they are doing it as well."

Upstairs other students worked on coding and building underwater robotics-- which they took outside to test.

Evaristo Trevino with the Fresno County Superintendent of Schools told us the goal is to expose the students to activities that could redefine their futures.

"Because of their migrant situation they move from school to school throughout the year-- sometimes as many as three moves a year. So they really don't have any opportunity to have this type of enrichment program and we're really trying to spark an interest in them so they can pursue a career in STEM field."

Something Marlene Rodarte is considering doing.

"I really like doing these kinds of things and people keep saying we need girl power in it."
Copyright © 2024 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved.