School is still in session for students enrolled in summer classes.
For the past month, the San Diego Unified School District has offered an alternative program to traditional core subject classes.
Eighty middle school students from Millennial Tech Middle School, CPMA, Farb, Knox, Language Academy, Marston, and Muirlands enrolled in a project-based summer school to design a metaphysical mission to Mars.
The primary curriculum focused on designing and building model rockets. Getting a rocket off the ground is just the first stretch of the millions of miles it would take to make it to Mars.
Campers Martin Torres, 12, and Tinny Tucker, 13, learned the agony of defeat when the rocket they created failed in flight.
“When it crashed, we saw that part of it was burned," said Torres, who is a seventh-grade student at Millennial Tech Middle School. “I’m pretty sure we used Elmer’s glue. We should have used the hot glue because it was stronger."
He and his his classmate hoped to rebuild another model before the summer session ends next week.
“We’re going to figure out how to do it perfectly down to the last bit. We’re going to glue it correctly and launch it again," Tucker said.
Lessons are embedded in science, technology, engineering, and math with the goal of planning a supply mission to a colony on Mars. The rocket is only part of the plan.
Trial and error is part of the process, according to Jason Berman, a media arts teacher.
Berman has his students design video games with rockets. The digital design work makes getting into virtual outer space much more easy and safe.
“Video games seem like the way to engage all the students who didn’t put a lot into school. Because even those kids, when video games are on the table start getting into it," he said.
Makayla Day, 14, will be a freshman at Lincoln High School this fall. She enrolled in the middle school summer program with hopes of expanding her horizons beyond science.
“You can create something and it won’t always come out as planned. But, that’s how you fail and have trials. You learn better and next time it will be easier," Day said.
