On April 12th, a group of 23 consisting of students and staffs went to the United States for an educational trip. The main objectives were to visit the Johnson Space Center, Houston and Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The group of students were selected from 6 different schools in Kathmandu namely Galaxy Public School, Josheph International School, Trinity International School, Baylor International School, Novel Academy and Little Angel’s School. There were 14 boys and 6 girls in the group, accompanied by 3 adults. The Chairman of ESCN Dr. Dilip Adhikari, the Education Officer of ESCN Mr. Sudip Vikram Adhikari and the Head Teacher of Galaxy Public School Mrs. Kapu Adhikari accompanied the group for the visit.
The second day of arriving in Houston we went to the Natural History Museum. This museum comes in the list of top 10 most visited museums in the United States. It was full of Dinosaur models, some with actual bone parts of real Dinosaurs, very intiricate crystal formations brought from all parts of the world, and all sorts of interactive models and exhibits on oil mining.
The third day was the visit to Johnson Space Center where Mrs. Elizabeth, the Exhibit Manager of NASA personally showed us around. We also got the previlege to get inside the actual Mockup Facility of NASA where models of satellites, rockets, etc. are tested before they go into large size production. There was a guided tour to the facility via Tram. We were shown around the facilities of NASA and taken to Mission Control where we sat and learnt how it worked. This was the same Mission Control room that was used to see through the landing of Humans in the Moon.
The fourth day was a good time spent shopping in the Galleria. Students took photos in the Water-wall just outside the mall.
The next day we hit the freeway to go to Florida stopping by at various eaterias including Mc Donalds, Subway, etc. and stopping over various Inns the Ramada, Baymont, etc. The dinner was at a Mexican restaurant in Pensacola. The food was different but it was a nice experience.
As the students entered the Kennedy Space Center, they were awed by the Rocket Garden with large models of different types of rockets as it stood infront of them. Kennedy Space Center offered a lot of things to see that were mind boggling. There was a bus ride that rode us 5 miles to take us to the Rocket Assembly Building, that does exactly what the name suggests. And then came the Launchpad from where numerous Rockets and Shuttles were launched to space. There were Florida’s famous Aligators in water-bodies all along the way exciting the students. As if all this wasn’t enough there was the real star of Kennedy Space Center waiting for us to explore. The real “Atlantis”, the space shuttle that flew to space and back with more than 35 missions. Kennedy Space Center was a real treat.
The thought of going to Universal Studios was very exciting for the students, and we went there the next day. There were a lot of rides The Simpsons Ride, Roller Coaster, Men In Black, The Mummies, etc. The whole day wasn’t enough for us to complete all the rides, but we did go for the best of them.
Dr. Dilip Adhikari, the Chairman of ESCN went to visit Naranjo Museum of Natural History in Lufkin where Mayor Brown presented him with a Key to the City. You can read the full article featured in the news here – Founder of Everest Science Center pays visit to Lufkins Naranjo Museum of Natural History.
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