About 50 local middle school students will hear from the first African-American to walk in space June 20 as part of the Exxon Mobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp.
The students have been on campus since June 9 and will return home June 21. The scheduled 15 minute address by Harris will begin a Space Day competition where the students will be challenged to create a space suit swatch using household items.
Activities will begin at 8:30 a.m. and continue until 10:30 a.m. in Room 327 of the Osborne Center for Science & Engineering.
“The Center for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics Education at UCCS is pleased to partner with Shades of Blue to host the ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp,” Dave Khaliqi, director, CSTEME, said. “This is an outstanding opportunity for underserved middle school students to experience the thrill of science learning and problem-solving in an engaged, hands-on way.”
The camp is focused on a theme of Mars exploration. The theme was incorporated into classes in biology, chemistry, physics, environmental sciences, earth sciences, engineering, and field excursions.
Harris is expected to share his personal story with the campers. A native of Temple, Texas, Harris earned a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Houston and a doctoral degree in medicine from Texas Tech University before embarking on a space career.
After medical school, Dr. Harris completed a residency in internal medicine at the Mayo Clinic and a fellowship at NASA Ames Research Center. He trained as a flight surgeon at the Aerospace School of Medicine and studied clinical investigations of space adaptation and the development of countermeasures for extended duration space flight. Assigned to the Medical Science Division, he held the title of Project Manager, Exercise Countermeasure Project.
Dr. Harris became an astronaut in July 1991. He was assigned as a mission specialist on STS-55, Spacelab D-2, in Aug. 1991, and later flew on board Columbia for ten days. Dr. Harris was part of the payload crew of Spacelab D-2, conducting a variety of research in physical and life sciences.
Later, Harris was the payload commander on STS-63 (Feb. 2-11, 1995), the first flight of a new joint Russian-American Space Program. Mission highlights included the rendezvous with the Russian Space Station, Mir, operation of a variety of investigations in the Spacehab module, and the deployment and retrieval of Spartan 204. During the flight, Dr. Harris became the first African-American to walk in space. He logged 198 hours, 29 minutes in space, completed 129 orbits, and traveled more than 2.9 million miles.
In 1996, the year of his departure from NASA, Dr. Harris also received a master’s degree in biomedical science from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. He later served as chief scientist and vice-president of science and health services, and then as vice president, SPACEHAB, Inc., where he was involved in business development and marketing of the company’s space-based products and services. Later, he was vice president of business development for Space Media, Inc., establishing an international space education program for students.
Dr. Harris is president and founder of the Harris Foundation, which supports math/science education and crime prevention programs for America’s youth.
For more information about Harris and his foundation, visit http://www.theharrisfoundation.org/sitecontent/565/summer-science-camp/category/457/education.aspx
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