Fourteen sixth-graders from Freeport Middle School begin training as space explorers next month at Space Camp, at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala.

The May 19-24 trip, an annual Freeport Middle School tradition that began in 1986, is organized by Principal Ray Grogan and teachers Dave Smail of Freeport High School and Stacy Alvarez of Freeport Middle School. Students work November through May running car washes, raffles and other fundraising efforts to raise money for the camp.

At Space Camp, students will climb into a life-size shuttle, perform a simulated shuttle mission and strap into machines that show what it feels like to lift off in a shuttle. They will spin wildly in space, and walk on a simulated moon. The six-day experience in Hunstville also includes a trip to a science museum, a journey through a cave, fossil-hunting and more.

Wendy Harlan of Freeport will be one of the parent chaperones on the trip. Harlan, whose daughter, Maya Bradbury, went to Space Camp three years ago, will accompany her son, Chase Bradbury, this year. Harlan heard plenty of stories from her daughter when she returned from the trip.

“She’s the one who said I should go,” Harlan said. “She was really thrilled with the whole thing. She liked the caves the most. It’s quite an experience for a 12-year-old.”

Harlan said that the two teachers invite Freeport Middle School students to apply for the trip each year. Interested students attended meetings last fall, and filled out applications, explaining their interest in going to Space Camp. They must keep their grades up to be considered, Harlan said.

Chase Bradbury has talked in great detail with his sister about her experience at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, and the trip in general.

“I’ve heard that the caves are the best from everybody I’ve asked,” he said. “It’s just a fun thing to do.”

Bradbury said he most enjoys reading, but also has interest in the sciences.

“I’ve always been interested in space and science,” he said.

Jacob Selian and Maximo Steverlynck-Horne have gone to Space Camp, and related some highlights of the experience to Principal Grogan, who provided them to the Tri-Town Weekly in a press release.

Selian, an eighth-grader at Freeport Middle School who went on the trip two years ago, liked the simulated space mission.

“Each student plays a different role: pilot, captain, command and control,” Selian said. “There’s a special book and script that you follow. At one point Mission Control says, ‘T minus 10 minutes.’ At another point the mission commander says he has a problem. Once you do the takeoff, then you do a space walk. You suit up, go out into a room and build a structure. You’re not on anything solid. You’re floating around.”

Selian also liked another teaching tool, the multi-axis trainer.

“Say you’re up in space and you fire a rocket and you didn’t mean to do that, and now you’re spinning wildly in space,” he said. “The multi-axis trainers help the astronauts learn how that feels, and also learn how to get the spacecraft back under control. Your instructor straps you into the chair and presses a button. You go upside down, rotate, do flips and spins.”

Steverlynck-Horne, a seventh-grader who went to Space Camp last year, sums up the five-day trip of experiential learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM): “It’s probably the best thing I’ve done in school.”

Students to attend the 2015 Space Camp are Bradbury, Nicholas Bither, Cadence Bourgoin, Alexander Hallstrom, Liam Hornschild-Bear, Matthew Kempf, Aidan Michaud, Sydney Morrison, Anthony Panciocco, Allie Perotta, Nathan Selian, Eleanor Sterling, Ben Wagner and T.J. Whelan.

David Smail, a Freeport High School science teacher, demonstrates how students will launch their own handmade rockets at the 2015 Space Camp. The lesson was part of a series of 12 after-school science lessons that prepare students academically for the camp, set for May 19-24 at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala. From left are Nicholas Bither, Nathan Selian, Anthony Panciocco, Matthew Kempf, Alex Hallstrom, T.J. Whelan and Smail. Courtesy  photo