Stafford Students Visit Richmond Science Museum

STAFFORD COUNTY, Virginia - While most kids were playing video games or swimming this week 22 Stafford County students and their teachers were thinking about physics and learning to document their experiments.

The last day of camp students were treated to a field trip to the Science Museum of Virginia in Richmond. They did not take one of the fancy charter buses but no one seemed to mind. They were focused on the excitement of their journey.

This was the first year for the STAT Summer Camp. It took place this week at Stafford High School and included rising freshmen and sophomore students. These ambitious students spent from 9am - 3pm expanding their understanding of Newton's Laws, building model airplanes, learning about GPS technology and conducting experiments.

STAT, which stands for Stafford Academy for Technology, is a state-approved Governor's Career and Technical Academy. It is a unique high school opportunity for students interested in science and technology pathways and compliments the Commonwealth Governor's School Program which has more of a liberal arts focus.

During this year's 4 day camp students focused on the physics and aerodynamics of rocketry. Every day was full of project based learning and working in small groups to solve problems. This hands-on approach is a fundamental part of the STAT program.

On Monday students built paper rockets. First they were given a simple design which they constructed from paper and then conducted test flights down the hallway. Students had to record the rockets success or failure and then go back to the drawing board for an original redesign of their rockets. Students produced 3 air propelled rockets that were fueled by blowing through drinking straws.

Tuesday morning the eager students learned about GPS technology. Using hand held GPS devices they hide tagged stuffed animals on the grounds of Stafford High School and then had to seek them out. After a lunch break the STAT kids continued building rubber band propelled rockets and watched a film about the planet Mars.

It is debatable whether the great fun was really the Thursday field trip to the science museum because Wednesday was water rocket day. Students designed bottle rockets from plastic soda bottles and fired them off. Between rocket launches students recorded the measurements and observations of each flight in order to quantify thier results
.
The STAT program strives to teach tangible skills like effective data collection and help the kids adopt a scientific research based work style. This year the program only included freshman and sophomores because the STAT program has just concluded its first school year.

During 2008-09 school year the program welcomed its first class of Freshman and it will take until the 2011-2012 school year for that group of students to become the first class to graduate from the 4 year STAT program. For more information about this innovative program that has teenagers willing to give up a week of summer vacation contact Mary Anne Spinella at (540) 658-6000 or mspinella@Staffordschools.Net.