Well, if yesterday was a little slow, today they were all out - full speed ahead with activities first thing in the morning.  They started with a little history of the Space Shuttle.  This was a great follow-up to the movie that we watched last night about the first Space Shuttle flight.
     They had other opportunities to ride the Space Shot and the G-Force, which some would say is their favorite thing to do.
      They had a Mars Mission, which is not open to me.  But this gave them a little insight into what NASA is doing in the space exploration of the planet Mars.  And don't be fooled into thinking that there are no aliens living on Mars.  One student said that he thought that there are aliens and that perhaps they have been hiding in holes any time we have been looking.  Who knows those aliens may be much smarter than we have imagined.
      They had a team photo made today and each student will receive an 8x10 of their team along with their graduation certificate on Friday.
       If you like turning upside down and all around in a gyroscope, then you would have enjoyed the MAT (Multi Axis Trainer).  We had some brave souls try this out. We even had at least one student who didn't think he wanted to do it, but tried it, and even enjoyed himself.  Who knew?  The looks on their faces were priceless.  Some squealed with delight, some with trepidation,  some just for the sake of squealing.  You may have recognized your child in this.  Others took it like a walk in the park.  "Yeah, that was fun."
       On to Rocket Construction...  This is where the students construct their own rockets which they will launch from the launch pad tomorrow.  And we have good weather predicted.  This is always fun.  If they are lucky and their rocket doesn't travel too far, they can retrieve it as a souvenir.  Those that travel "to the Moon" may not make it back.  (Space Camp was only able to provide enough fuel for a one-way flight.)
We'll have to watch and see how well they each followed instructions and carried them out.
      As an aside here - You would be pleased to see how your children have been able to handle things.  And I am always pleased to see how the team trainers allow them to do things for themselves.  This is a huge learning opportunity for the students.
      Each team is asked to draw a patch that represents their team.  They are shown patches from each of the NASA missions of the past as examples.  Then the team votes on one which they will use.  At the end of the week,  an award is given to the team with the best patch.  I can't wait to see what we submitted.
     The Davidson Center houses the Saturn V rocket as well as many other pieces of rocketry and space travel history.  So it makes a perfect place to take the students for some lessons on the history of space travel.  This is one of the examples of their "classes" being taught "on-the-go" and in a setting that makes more sense to the students than our sitting in the classroom at school and reading about it or discussing it.  How much more real can you get than being right there with the space craft that was used to make this history?
     I left the students tonight with an activity in which each team was to design a space suit.  They were given some information about the requirements needed for astronauts to be able to survive in space.  Then they worked together in groups to come up with their own design to be drawn out on grid paper - sort of a "Flat Stanley Goes to Mars" theme.
     For their final activity tonight, they were going to the IMAX theater for a video called Dream is Alive.
 I'm sure that tonight they will fall asleep a little faster.  Some were still testing the system a little last night and they were very excited for their first night out.  But after a full day today, and as much walking as they have done back and forth across this wide campus, I believe they will easily settle in tonight and be glad for the opportunity to be able to put their heads down.
      I hope that everyone has heard from your child by now.  I know that some said that they ran out of time to use the phone last night.  A few said that they had not tried.  I did encourage them all to at least call once so that you could hear their voices.  Everyone seems to be doing well.
     As for me, I'm calling it a night.  I did all of that walking back and forth across campus as well. ;-)