TOKYO – July 1, 2019 – The Northrop Grumman Foundation announced that it is sponsoring six students and three teachers from Japan to attend Space Camp®, held at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center® in Huntsville, Alabama, July 7-12, 2019.
This year, six students and three teachers from Horiguchi Junior High School in Misawa City, Aomori; Noda Junior High School in Kanazawa City, Ishikawa, and Nanshun Junior High School in Kagoshima, will attend the week-long program along with participants from around the world. As a sponsor, the Northrop Grumman Foundation will cover all participation and accommodation expenses.
“At Northrop Grumman we are honored to support these students and teachers, and ones like them around the world,” said Om Prakash, chief executive, Northrop Grumman Japan. “We are committed to empowering and inspiring the next generation of engineers and scientists. This will be an incredible experience for the participants, and I am excited to imagine where it will lead them in their bright futures.”
Space Camp® is an experiential learning program that aims to increase youth interest in space science. Students will participate in activities such as building and launching rockets, astronaut-training simulators and test their engineering skills during the Thermal Design Challenge. The teachers will discover new tools and resources to enhance how they demonstrate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) concepts in their classrooms.
The junior high school students and their teachers are scheduled to visit the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) before they leave for the U.S. At JAXA, they will learn about the Japanese space program through a tour of the Tsukuba Space Center.
The Northrop Grumman Foundation has sponsored Japanese students and teachers to attend Space Camp® since 2017, and it has supported the attendance of a total of 13 participants from 4 prefectures in Japan.
Northrop Grumman and the Northrop Grumman Foundation are dedicated to expanding and enhancing sustainable science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education opportunities for students globally. With an emphasis on middle school and university level students, our engineering and technology-based partnerships are designed to excite, engage and educate students and their teachers as they defend cyber networks, engineer autonomous vehicles, explore space and more. In 2018, we contributed nearly 20 million dollars towards these initiatives. In alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal for education, by 2030, we plan to provide workforce-relevant professional development to middle school educators to increase their competence in teaching STEM subjects, in turn, positively affecting 350,000 students’ exposure to STEM skills and careers.
Northrop Grumman is a leading global security company providing innovative systems, products and solutions in autonomous systems, cyber, C4ISR, space, strike, and logistics and modernization to customers worldwide. Please visit news.northropgrumman.com and follow us on Twitter, @NGCNews, for more information.