Chabot Space and Science Center Receives Grant for Kids

A grant has been awarded to The Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, which would allow the center to engage young people in a cultural exchange program with students from another science education center halfway around the world, science center officials announced Thursday.

Through the U.S. Department of State’s Museums Connect grant, the science center will partner with Science City in Kolkata, India in an effort to teach students about how to apply science and technology in order to sustain life on earth, according to science center officials.

The collaborative effort, called “Hacking Space: A Student Exchange to Sustain Life on Earth,” will allow over a dozen select high school students in both the U.S. and India to explore the two nations’ cultures and the environmental problems each one faces, science center officials said.

The American students from all over the Bay Area were selected from an already existing youth development program at the science center, according to science center officials. During the program, students will identify innovations in space technology that have been or are currently being developed.

The technology could be applied to solve environmental problems, according to science center officials. “By partnering with another center, we are able to teach the next generation about working together to solve major global issues facing our world,” Chabot’s volunteer program manager and project lead, Megan Steinwedel said in a statement.

The Hacking Space program is set to conclude sometime next spring. Toward the end of the program, the two student groups will travel to each center to offer their ideas and present them to visitors at the respective centers, science center officials said.

--Bay City News; Image via WikiMedia