After-school programs, special activities, and summer camps promote a fun and engaging approach to introducing children to science education. Galaxy Explorers’ programs teach six primary themes: Science, Engineering, Rocketry, Robotics, Geosciences, and Space Citizenship. .
Galaxy Explorers local “Mission Teams” meet on a monthly basis, 10 meetings per year. Field trips and summer camps are also conducted. Adult volunteers teach Galaxy Explorers with easy-to-understand and fun-to-do educational material to provide a hands-on understanding of space science, Earth science, engineering, and rocketry. Another primary theme -Space Citizenship - teaches the role of government and citizenship, and the promise of space expressed in art, writing, history, and business. Mission Team members wear uniform shirts and are rewarded for participation and achievements with ribbons, patches, medals, and certificates. Awards are an integral part of the program providing children self-esteem through achievement and recognition.
In these after-school meetings, children participate in hands-on activities that support the National Science Education Standards. The program is designed to be taught by interested parents with no special technical knowledge. Fully scripted lesson plans are provided as well as loaner materials such as meteorites, robots kits, telescopes, and space suits (even NASA has borrowed our space suits for educational purposes). Talk to us today about starting a Mission Team at your child's school.
Battle of the Rockets
The Battle of the Rockets Competition consists of three events with a range of complexity to test all skill levels. The Target Altitude Event focuses on the rocket design skills. The Rover Event adds the complexity of designing an autonomous robot that must survive launch, deployment, and landing and perform an operation autonomously. The Sounding Rocket event is a medium complexity event.
Since 2002 we have offered our one-week summer camps in Maryland, Virginia, and Pennsylvania. We have three primary camps: Moon Base One, Mars Base, and Robotics. Our Moon Base One Camp has an engineering focus on rocketry and serves grades 3-5. Mars, with an emphasis on robotics, serves grade 5-7. Our High School Robotics camp focuses on a deeper level of science activities. At the end of all our summer camps, all campers, parents and even friends are invited to our grand finale rocket launch!