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Navigating New Heights: NASA’s ASTRO CAMP® Initiative Expands Its Reach

The NASA ASTRO CAMP® program continues to make significant strides in promoting education in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) among students globally. The initiative’s success is reflected in the growing number of community partnerships established in recent years, fostering an environment of inspiration for youth, families, and educators alike.

In the fiscal year 2024, the NASA ASTRO CAMP® Community Partners (ACCP) program formed collaborations with an impressive 373 community sites, which included 50 locations outside the United States. This expansion demonstrates a commitment to engaging diverse demographics, particularly focusing on underrepresented populations and individuals with disabilities, as well as reaching under-resourced urban and rural communities.

“This year has been extremely impactful for the students at ACCP collaborating partner sites,” commented Kelly Martin-Rivers, the principal investigator for NASA’s ACCP. “A particular highlight was our involvement in supporting the solar eclipses of 2024, where we engaged over 42,000 students across 52 NASA ACCP events. Our efforts, alongside contributions from Science Activation grantees and Globe citizen scientists, effectively bring meaningful, hands-on experiences to students nationwide and internationally.”

Throughout the past year, the ACCP reached out to 323 sites across 29 states and the District of Columbia, extending its influence beyond the United States to 50 sites in six different countries, including Mexico, India, Turkey, Canada, Spain, and Ukraine. Nearly 150,000 students participated in the program, marking a substantial 30% increase compared to fiscal year 2023 figures. Additionally, close to 107,000 students engaged in specialized STEM activities—a remarkable 43.6% rise from the previous year’s participation rate of over 74,000. The program also provided training for 1,454 facilitators during Educator Professional Development sessions, reflecting a 25.3% growth from the prior year.

In total, the NASA ACCP has impacted over a quarter of a million individuals, with an impressive tally of 257,765 participants.

As a vital component of the NASA Science Mission Directorate’s Science Activation program, the ACCP aims to address educational disparities in STEM fields. The demographic reach of the initiative is notably diverse, with one-third of participants identifying as African American and an additional 13% as Hispanic. The gender distribution was nearly balanced, with 52% male and 48% female participants.

Age-wise, the breakdown revealed that 38% of attendees were elementary school students, 30% were middle schoolers, and the remaining 32% comprised high school students. A standout feature of 2024 was the successful hosting of 52 NASA ACCP solar eclipse events, where over 42,000 participants engaged in specialized programming.

The ACCP activities are designed to provide students with applicable experiences that both enhance their scientific knowledge and support NASA’s overarching science missions. The themed initiative for this year was “NASA Science … Fire to Water to Ice and Beyond!” which encompassed a variety of materials and activities aligned with NASA’s missions in astrophysics, heliophysics, Earth sciences, and planetary studies.

This innovative approach encourages student collaboration to complete mission-oriented tasks, facilitated by trained community educators. These thematic modules are crafted by the ACCP team stationed at NASA’s Stennis Space Center in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

Originally launched in the 1990s as a single one-week camp, ASTRO CAMP has since evolved into multiple flexible formats suitable for implementation in schools, museums, universities, libraries, and service organizations around the globe.

For those interested in becoming a NASA ASTRO CAMP Collaborative Community Partner, more information can be obtained by contacting Kelly Martin-Rivers at kelly.e.martin-rivers@nasa.gov or 228-688-1500; or Maria Lott at maria.l.lott@nasa.gov or 228-688-1776.

For additional details regarding the ASTRO CAMP Collaborative Community Partner Program, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/stennis/stem-engagement-at-stennis/nasa-accp/.

Source
www.nasa.gov