Cole Jackson
Las Sendas resident Cole Jackson recently attended Aviation Challenge at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, home of Space Camp and NASA’s official Visitor Information Center for Marshall Space Flight Center.
The weeklong educational program promotes science, technology, engineering and math (STEM), while training students and adults with hands-on activities and missions based on teamwork, leadership and decision-making.
Cole attends Red Mountain High School, where he is a sophomore enrolled in the new Cambridge/STEM Move on When Ready (MOWR) program initiated at Red Mountain High last year. This was Cole’s fifth year participating in Space Camp. Cole’s sister, Robin, an eighth-grader at Fremont Junior High School, attended Space Academy in June for the first time.
Cole was part of the Aviation Challenge Mach III Program, a program specifically designed for trainees who have an interest in military aviation and the mechanics of flight. He spent the week training with a team that flew a simulated F/A-18 fighter jet. The crew learned critical land and water survival skills, and mastered Top Gun flying maneuvers. Cole and crew returned to land in time to graduate with honors.
Aviation Challenge crew trainers who lead each 16-member team must have at least a year of college, and 67 percent of the 2011 staff are college graduates. Aviation Challenge operates year-round in Huntsville, Ala., and uses fighter pilot training techniques to engage trainees in real-world applications of STEM subjects. Students sleep in barracks designed to resemble military bays.
More than 600,000 trainees have graduated from Space Camp since its opening in Huntsville, in 1982, including STS-131 astronaut Dottie Metcalf-Lindenburger. Last year, children and teachers from all 50 states and 58 international locations attended Space Camp.
For more information about Aviation Challenge, call (800) 63-SPACE (637-7223). Visit the Web site at www.aviationchallenge.com.