The Texas Aerospace Scholars Program will select 24 co-ops to participate in the program this year along with 24 mentors. The goal of the TAS co-op and mentoring program is to encourage the scholars to study math, science, engineering and technology by giving them an in-depth view of what careers in those fields are really like. Co-ops personal experiences can help our scholars get excited about different careers in science, engineering and technology.

Co-ops will submit a biography for the scholars' web page and receive a half-day training led by mentors from the previous year. During the fall and spring, co-ops will get acquainted with the scholars via on-line discussion groups focusing on the TAS on-line activities. On-line activities will cover the Space Shuttle, the International Space Station, lunar and Mars exploration. In the late spring, co-ops and mentors will be assigned to teams of 8-10 scholars. Co-ops and mentors will correspond with their student teams via e-mail and an on-line discussion session. Co-ops are encouraged to review their team members' final projects, which will be completed on a topic related to their team theme. During the summer workshop co-ops will be assigned to work with their team, mentor, and a teacher counselor on a team project in Mars or lunar Exploration.

The summer workshops begin on Sunday afternoon and end with an awards luncheon on Friday. During the workshop, mentors and co-ops will facilitate a team project (approximately 2.5 hours each morning) and are encouraged to attend briefings, meals, field trips, and events with their teams during the week as their schedules permit. Team projects will be in-depth reviews of one the following topics in lunar or Mars exploration:

Getting There and Back - Why do we go? How do we go? What are the risks? Where are we going? How do we go safely?

Living There - How do we survive? What are the dangers? What are our physical needs? What are our psychological needs?

Working There - What is our mission? What do we need? How will we do it? Where will we go? How will we communicate it? How will we work together?

Co-ops will be able to choose which weeks they can work and which topics are of interest to them.

Last Updated: 06/20/01