July 13, 2020 - Sierra County, New Mexico - Spaceport America is hosting a free virtual space camp for children and parents to enrich at-home learning this summer. The STEM with Spaceport America series blends arts and crafts with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) experiments. The camp will feature Spaceport America’s new STEM mascots “Spirit and Sky”. The series has been made available to the New Mexico Public Education Department for virtual learning resources for the fall.

“With the current COVID-19 Safer at Home restrictions, many families won’t be taking their usual summer vacations,” said Alice Carruth, Spaceport America Public Relations Coordinator. “With that in mind, we’ve created a series of fun science and space-based activities for families to engage with. All activities utilize materials found at home and are aimed at elementary and middle school students.”

Spaceport America will release a new activity every day at 10 a.m. beginning Monday, July 20, and continuing daily through Friday July 24. The videos will be streamed live on the Spaceport America Facebook Page at: https://www.facebook.com/spaceportNM/

Each camp video will include an educational segment featuring staff from the New Mexico Spaceport Authority. Dr. Bill Gutman, Spaceport America’s Director of Aerospace Operations, will be holding a Facebook live chat after the final activity airs on Friday July 24. Participants will be able to ask questions to the Spaceport America team throughout the week and will be encouraged to upload the results of their at-home projects. The finished segments will be shared to the education page on the Spaceport America Website for students and families that cannot participate at 10 a.m. each day.

Additionally, Dr. Gutman will participate in Explora’s Virtual Summer Science Night at 6 p.m. July 21st. That event can be streamed from Spaceport America's and Explora's Facebook account.