PHOTO: Air propelled rockets were launched at the back of Macdonald Park. Students learned about different forces and energy at work.
ONCE the youngsters had ‘graduated’ from the Aerospace Camp last week it was the adult’s turn to get their hands and heads into the fun.
At Coonamble Sportsground on Wednesday afternoon 7 June the sparks were flying as the four day camp for school students wound up with a launch of almost thirty ‘King Bob’ (Estes-type) rockets the youngsters had built themselves.
The King Bob rockets, complete with combustion engines, were named as a tribute to Bob Carpenter who co-founded the One Giant Leap Australia Foundation with his wife Jackie and passed away suddenly in February this year.
Some of the rockets reached the maximum allowable height of 120 metres, with just a couple heading over the sportsground fence and one landing on a nearby road.
Then on Thursday evening 8 June eight local women took up the open invitation of a special ‘adults only’ session hosted by the Foundation at Coonamble Bowling Club.
Like the school children, the ladies were treated to some immersive activities that involved problem solving, design processes that challenged their creative thinking, and a hilarious mind-bending session using virtual reality headsets.
Co-founder of the Foundation, Jackie Carpenter explained her vision for opening doors for regional youth to enter and explore the vast and exciting realm of space-related STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) subjects and career pathways.
“It’s all planned around the kids,” Mrs Carpenter said. “They had to work in teams with people they didn’t even know.”
“I think the kids in Coonamble surprised themselves – how much they learnt, how resilient they were, and kids who thought they were followers learned they could lead and support each other to get everyone over the line.”
The days at Aerospace Camp started at 6.30am and didn’t finish till 9:15pm.
“The kids were wonderful, their manners were great, and they were a great example of our youths of today,” she said.
“I was excited by their open-mindedness and willingness to take on a challenge and not just throw their hands in the air. “I loved that they had energy to burn.”
She was joined by a crack scientific team with James and Jenna McCarthy, Joanne Sims and Finn McKeown.
Mrs Carpenter says the space industry jobs of the future are well within reach of Coonamble’s students.
“You can actually stay in Coonamble and have a space job – all you need is an internet connection,” she said. “And because of the technology used, agriculture and space are actually parallel industries, you can jump between farming and space quite easily.”
“But even outside farming, every job in the world has an equivalent one in the space sector.”
As for the mothers and other women, who may not be looking at a new career, the feedback was enthusiastic.
“It was great fun and were were all able to understand and enjoy it,” said Missy Broughton.
“The space travel and asteroid mining is not really that distant – we might see it in our lifetime which would be really exciting.”
“It was more than worthwhile,” she said.
“What they teach the kids is invaluable.
“We have lots of sporting events but not so much science.
“My son has a new lease on life, it sparked more joy in him.”
“A bit more of that for our area would be fantastic. I would love to see more of it,” she said.
“It almost makes you want to go back to school,” one participant told the Coonamble Times. “We really hope that the Aerospace Camps will return so more of our kids can have that experience.”