Young reporter: Chigwell School flies to NASA -Roma Pabila

Pupils from this trip ranged from years 10 to 11. A total of 4 teachers went on this school trip. The group took a coach from Chigwell school to Heathrow Airport where they took a 10-hour flight into Houston. Once the group had landed, they travelled to their hotel, which was a 15-minute journey from the NASA Johnson Space centre. The pupils shared in rooms of three. After settling into their rooms, the group had dinner at a sports club, Boomer Jacks. 

The next day, the students woke up bright and early to have breakfast at 6:30. They then took a coach to the Johnson Space Centre, where they were greeted by the team and given an introduction, which included a tram tour of the Space Centre. The students got to see a Saturn 5 rocket on site. 

Throughout the trip, the students got the chance to work on a project, which was building a rocket. The students split into smaller groups of 4, where they worked on their rockets in the classrooms. Whilst at the space centre, for lunch, the students ate in the food lab. The groups competed in mini competitions, where they completed tasks, such as making a cryogenic chamber, which they tested with marshmallows and a thermal heat shield, which was designed to protect an egg. 

On their third day, the students got toured around an exhibition, showcasing badges from various missions into space. The groups tested their cryogenic chambers, by dipping their chambers into liquid nitrogen. The heat shields were tested by going outside and measuring the egg's temperature in change, after pointing a blow torch at it. The groups also continued to build their rockets. After lunch, the students got to participate in astronaut training, which included scuba diving. The students were also given a robotics task, where they drove robots in the space centre’s pool. To end this long day, the group played a game of laser tag followed by bowling. 

The following day, the group listened to a talk, from a NASA employee. For their activity, the groups built habitats designed to last on Mars. The pupils then gave presentations about their Martian habitat. On their last day at NASA, the groups got to finally launch the rockets they had spent all week building. These two staged rockets were launched outside. After this, the pupils went on a walking tour, where they viewed space shuttles as well as a Space X rocket. After lunch, the pupils were lucky enough to listen to a talk from an astronaut, followed by a Q&A, enabling students to gain a better understanding of the realities of being an astronaut. The group then had a graduation ceremony, where they watched a video of collated pictures from their trip. This was a lovely way to reflect on the past week. The ceremony also included awards such as ribbons for various activities such as the cryogenic chambers, thermal heat shields and rocket launchings. Year 10 student says, “This was by far my favourite school trip.”