Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Samuel Barnes of Demopolis recently attended Aviation Challenge Mach II at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, home of Space Camp®, Space Camp® Robotics™, Aviation Challenge®, U.S. Cyber Camp® and NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s Official Visitor Center.

The weeklong educational program promotes science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), while training students and with hands-on activities and missions based on teamwork, leadership and problem solving.

This program is specifically designed for students who have an interest in military aviation and the mechanics of flight. Students learn principles of aviation and put their knowledge to the test in a variety of flight simulators. Taking the role of fighter pilots, Samuel and team ran control systems and scenario-based missions as well as trained in water and land survival. At the end of the week, Samuel and crew returned in time to graduate with honors.

Aviation Challenge opened in 1990 in Huntsville, Alabama, and uses fighter pilot training techniques to engage trainees in real-world applications of STEM subjects. Students sleep in quarters designed to resemble military bays.

More than 850,000 trainees have graduated from a Space Camp® program since its inception in Huntsville, Alabama, in 1982, including European Space Agency astronaut, Samantha Cristoforetti and NASA astronauts Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger, Dr. Kate Rubins, Dr. Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Christina Koch, who is serving onboard the International Space Station. Children and teachers from all 50 states and almost 150 international locations have attended a Space Camp® program.

For more information  visit www.spacecamp.com/aviation or call 1-800-637-7223.

(This article originally appeared in the Wednesday, July 10 issue of the Demopolis Times.)