(HARLINGEN, Texas) – This summer more than 60 Rio Grande Valley students from kindergarten to third grade participated in Texas State Technical College’s Challenger Learning Center’s exciting new Atomnaut Academy. This summer program was developed show children that they are never too young to learn about science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) programs.

The Atomnaut Academy is an interactive, hands-on, STEM-based program that offers different activities to students based on their grade level. Through project-based learning, students are able to perform tasks that help to reinforce concepts they are learning about during the school year.

This summer children were able to participate in projects that included the creation of robotic hands and edible rovers, a look into the evolution of launchers, a crime scene investigation activity that required students to solve an attempted crime in the Challenger’s international space station simulator, and Challenger Rendezvous comet mission.