Over the spring break, I had a valuable opportunity to travel to Perú for a STEM Outreach event that I have been planning with One Voice 4 Change, Paola Wong, and Felicity Muench. Simon Gott and I traveled to Lima, Tumbes, and Chiclayo in Perú to share our passion and experience with space technology.
As a part of three-phase projects, One Voice 4 Change has worked on the student-driven "CubeSats in Peru" pilot program to build STEM capacity in the Educational System in Peru, promote space technology applications, and inspire Peruvian communities through CubeSats technologies. OV4C has facilitated CubeSats resources to the schools in Peru and aerospace mentor connections with the Peruvian students. As an international mentor, we went to Peru to support the program and increase the interest among more students.
In Tumbes and Chiclayo, we held a model rocket-building session with elementary and middle school-level students based on my experience with USAFA Blue Horizon Rocketry Club. I led a lesson about how rockets use the Law of Conservation of Energy to propel. Then, we built Estes Bulk Pack model rockets with the students to explain the stages of the rockets. Unfortunately, we could not launch the model rockets since we could not bring explosive motors with us. However, we demonstrated the Law of Conservation of Energy using water rockets to the students.
After the rocket lesson, we shared our CubeSat experience with the school's CubeSat team and troubleshot the problems with the CubeSats. Most of the schools are currently in Phase 1, where the students are building the CubeSats. Phase 2 consists of launching the CubeSat on a high-altitude balloon or drone as the real-life realization of the principles learned from Phase 1. By sharing our experience of the launch, we demonstrated the program's future with the students.
Finally, in Lima, we received an invitation to present at the "Academy Space Day" held at the National University of Engineering (Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería). We shared our research experience with the engineering students and faculties.
From this experience, I was motivated and inspired by the students' desire to learn. Once again, I realized the value of resources and opportunities to learn. I discovered a different joy in engineering with these students. The possibilities of the students with resources and access to mentors are infinite. A small opportunity like this sparks students' interest to change their careers and seek more opportunities. It was amazing to see what I have dreamed of since my sophomore year come to a reality. I will cherish the connections that I made with the students and local mentors who have the same dream as I do. I hope to mentor the students until we reach the goal of building and flying operational CubeSats in space.
I would like to thank One Voice 4 Change and Paola Wong for helping us with logistics and the USAFA Martinson Honors Program for funding to make this trip happen.
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