I had a great experience with Higher Orbits. The camp was hosted at LSSU and I had attended some other camps at LSSU so I was already excited.
Growing up, I was not very interested in space, but my parents always wanted me to keep my doors open. I attended and I immediately found that space was a lot more interesting than I thought. The activities were engaging and very fun. There were a lot of guest speakers that came in and taught us about a lot of different things including, my personal favorite, Dr Don Thomas who is an astronaut! He showed us pictures from space and told us about his adventures and experiences in space on the ISS. For the camp we had to design an experiment to go into space.
The experiment we designed, was about sending cellular respiration yeast, with bermuda grass, to help sustain the yeast, to space to see how their growth would be affected by the different environment. Cellular respiration yeast mimics animal cells so scientists could possibly use our data for the future, instead of sending animals into space. Our experiment was chosen from the rest of the groups and went on to compete against the rest of the state. We had to wait a little while for the other camps, but the day finally came when we found out via Facebook live, that we won the competition and our experiment was going to space.
We are all very excited. This was a great opportunity and I am so proud of our team for persevering and making our experiment a success. Higher Orbits grew my interest in space and taught me to try everything and even if you think it's not your thing, try it you might just love it as much as I did!
Written By – Evelyn Weber
