Students Launch Into Space Camp

Eleven-year-old Spencer Lubitzwas all smiles Wednesday as team leader for an interactive space mission in search of a black hole.

“That was a lot of fun,” said Spencer, one of 96 youths participating in the first summer space adventure camp at Castlemont School in Woodland Hills.

The four-week camp, which began June 22, consists of two parts--an imaginary trip to Mars followed by a mock journey into hyperspace, said Christy Reed, camp director.

In the first two weeks of camp, designated “Destination Mars,” the students embarked on an imaginary mission to the Red Planet. Prior to the journey, the children were fingerprinted, received security clearance and participated in space training.

“They simulated what astronauts would really go through if they were getting ready for a launch,” she said.

As part of camp activities, the students also created space-related arts and crafts, such as a model of a satellite dish, a space station and a 3-foot-long rocket.

During the final two weeks of camp, which ends July 17, the students will learn what it would be like to blast off from Mars and streak toward the center of the Milky Way, Reed said.

The space camp is a program developed by Dallas-based Voyager Expanded Learning Inc., a national education initiative, which consulted experts at NASA and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Reed said.

Lea Maloney, a teacher at the school, said what makes the program work is its authenticity.

“It brings things in space down to the level of elementary school students,” Maloney said. “It’s a wonderful program. The children seem to be really loving it, and they’re constantly repeating things that they’ve learned.”