Educating middle and high school students in space operations: the simulation approach

This paper describes a proposed pilot educational program to teach middle and high school students the space shuttle processing operations. This pilot program involves a partnership of two Universities (University of Central Florida and University of Florida), a small business (Productivity Apex), and three middle/high schools in the Florida area. Our proposed pilot program is an innovative approach designed to teach students about the complexities of space vehicle processing through a simulation environment. Through the many planned activities that we propose to achieve our goal, we will be able to introduce middle and high school students to aerospace operations, excite them about space education, and enthusiastically engage them in science and technology related projects. The ultimate objective of this effort is to motivate middle and high school students to pursue careers in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields.