American students’ visit to Singapore

Time for a wefie? American students visiting Singapore for an exchange programme called Youth Mission to Mars: Exploring Space to Address Sustainability on Earth. Among other activities, they were here in February 2016 visiting the five schools offering Flight and Aerospace Applied Learning Programme (ALP).

Six American students from Texas visited Ping Yi Secondary School in February 2016 as part of their exchange activities.

The American students went on to visit the other schools namely Hillgrove, Northbrooks, Changkat Changi and St. Gabriel’s Secondary Schools participating in this project.

Students from Texas (USA) joining Hillgrove Secondary students in the flight simulation lab, learning to fly a plane!

Cooking up a local dish with students at Northbrooks Secondary School.

Getting to know one of the Singapore’s heartland neighbourhood by playing treasure hunt with students from Changkat Changi Secondary School.

St. Gabriel's Secondary students visiting "The Future of Us" exhibition with American students. Pointing to the future on Mars, perhaps?

Looks like tones of fun from the many cultural, flight and aerospace related activities. These students are up to designing products or processes to sustain human lives on Mars. The areas in which they will all work on are of clean air, water conservation, renewable energy and nutrition. 50 Singaporean students work with 50 students from United States of America (USA) and 50 more from France in this mission.

In the process of this STEM and cultural exchange programme, students are expected to discuss and present the “Chart of Life on Mars”. The chart includes (1) Leadership/Decision making, (2) Working day organisation, (3) Leisure/Hobbies, (4) Relationship and Conflict Management, (5) Health/Well-being, (6) Religion, (7) Waste Management, (8) Meals/Nutrition, (9) Language and (10) Communications.

This means, other than applying STEM on the experiments to possibly sustain human lives to and from Mars, the “Chart of Life on Mars” is essential to how humans can interact and stay on Mars. This exchange project thus meet the objectives of (1) Raise awareness on the global challenges of living in an environment with finite resources, (2) Promote cross-cultural exchange and collaboration and (3) Promote critical thinking and hone interpersonal and communication skills.

In June 2016, selected students from all three countries will fly to USA and attend the Mars Trekker Global Teen Summit at Space Centre Houston. Students will attend interactive STEM workshops, network with NASA Scientists and Engineers. They will of course, learn about sustainable living on Mars too.

Youth Mission to Mars is a Science Centre Singapore collaboration with Space Centre Houston (USA) and Cite de l’espace (City of Space), Toulouse (France). This project is administered by American Alliance of Museums and sponsored by US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.