Aerospace summer camp: High school students learn the basics while doing

Two years after a class trip to the Challenger Learning Center, rising high school students Audrey Allender and Ada Osaji were building rockets and gliders side-by-side at the Siebel Center for Design this summer. The activity was part of Illinois Aerospace Institute—a week-long camp held on the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus, hosted by the Department of Aerospace Engineering.

“I love learning about anything that flies,” said Allender, who will be a first-year student at Champaign Central High School this fall. “I watched the launch of the James Webb Space Telescope and I made a model rocket with plastic tubing and other stuff. But, earlier, in 2020, I went on a class field trip to the Challenger Learning Center.”

Allender told her friend Ada about the camp and encouraged her to attend due to their shared interest in space.

“I like the idea that I can be a part of making a spacecraft or rover, or just something that can be sent into space to help us gather information,” Osaji said. “I think it would be cool to help work on something that will potentially be sent to Mars one day.”

Both campers said they learned a lot throughout the week—in particular, yaw, pitch, roll, and lots of physics.  Allender said “I also learned about many space missions, the aerodynamics of wings, multiple formulas, and orbital mechanics.”

Osaji, who will be a first-year student at Judah Christian High School in Champaign this fall, said she learned about lift, weight, drag, and thrust, and how they affect airplanes during take-off and landing.

The camp included a number of guest speakers, some in person and others via Zoom. Allender said her favorite speaker was Deputy Program Director at NASA Barbara Esker. “She was my favorite because of the depth in which she spoke of NASA projects.  I also found her field of study incredibly interesting.”

They both agreed that the counselors, who are aerospace engineering undergraduate and graduate students, were fun and knew their stuff.

“Yogi explained things really well, especially when a question was asked,” Osaji said. “Even though I haven't taken physics yet, I actually understood a lot more than I expected I would.”

The camp Allender and Osaji attended was the first of three summer camp sessions with a total of 38 campers. The first two sessions are in-person this year—the first time since 2019—and the third session will be virtual.  

AE faculty member Brian Woodard, said in order to get the most out of these technical sessions, participants must apply and be accepted to the program. The application includes a personal statement, a letter of recommendation from one of their teachers, and a list of their coursework thus far, and grades. For more information, visit the camp website.