While many kids spend too much time on iPads and iPods, especially when they’re home from school for the summer.
Other kids don’t have access to any technology at all out of the classroom.
But today, it was those children who had the chance to launch a space ship into cyber-space.
A new mobile technology bus stopped by the St. Vincent Catholic Charities Children’s Home in Lansing to teach kids about the power of zero gravity.
“We do after school programs during the school year, all STEM related, so science, technology, engineering, and math,” says ITEC Instructor, Monica McChesney.
McChesney is an instructor with Lansing’s Information Technology Empowerment Center. She says, program’s like this make a difference in the lives of young students.
“We do kindergarten to 6th grade, or 13 years old and they get to build their own spaceship and put it into space,” says McChesney.
Today, 40 kids from St. Vincent Children’s Home hopped aboard the tech-transport bus for a learning experience like no other.
They created a top of the line rocket ship and then watched as zero gravity impacted it’s travel.
“When they get into orbit, they just light up, and they get so excited that they’re in space they’re orbiting the earth,” says McChesney.
“This is what gives them, the normalizing feeling of just being excited for something,” says Program Director at St. Vincent Catholic Charities Children’s Home, Alysia Christy.
And for kids like this, who have limited access to computers and the internet, programs like ITEC give them the tools they need to build a successful future.
