Forty Chinese high school Students came from all over China to compete in the final round of the China Youth Space Academy, an academic challenge joint partnership with Arizona State University, the chinese government, the Chinese government-run Web site, China.com.cn, and Beijing's Flying Spirit advertising agency.
The China youth Space Academyaims to excite high school students about space science and engineering-a major focus for ASU-and to create a communication channel for students from the U.S. and China to understand and respect each other's culture.
The 15 students who scored highest amnog the 40 finalists will travel to ASU in January and join a group of high school students from Arizona for a 10-day hands-on space exploration experience. Together the two groups will work on space exploration projects at ASU's Mars Space Flight Facility in the School of Earth and Space Exploration.
During the two-day national competition, held November 17 & 18, in Beijing, student competitors were interviewed about their interests, capabilities, and long term goals.The students competed in a Jeopard-style question-and-answer contest with tough questions drawn from a variety of subject areas. Then came a talent show where each student demonstrated proficiency in some area. The fields ranged from singing, fol dance and musical instruments to artisitic paper cutting and caligraphy. The toughest part of the competition was designing a viable outpost that could support a sux-person crew on Mars for 15 months with no supplies from Earth. The competitors used bagfuls of everyday materials from the dollar store to build these models.
Students, who were divided into eight teams of five members each, were armed with a list of scientific data about the harsh Martian environment and basic human survival necessities, such as daily quantities of food, water, air and power. The teams had to decide where their outpost would be located, what its scientific purpose would be, and what skills the crew would have. Then they had to design an outpost habitat and build a model of it using ordinary materials such as paper cups, Styrofoam balls, CDs and plastic tubing.
The deadline was 8 a.m. on the second day, when each team had 10 minutes to describe their model's details as the judges looked on and assessed how carefully thought-out each plan was. Questions from the judges probed the students' reasons for choosing various aspects of their design.
Among the judges were ASU faculty and staff, and others from prestigious Chinese institutions, including Tsinghua University and the Beijing Planetarium. The entire two days of the final competition was videotaped by China Central Television and is being edited into a show to be broadcast throughout China.
