Human capital is at the core of America’s defense technology advantage. It takes years for an individual’s technical capacity to mature, and as such, the national security workforce of the future is perhaps establishing their educational foundation today in elementary schools throughout the county. To build this workforce the Rocky Mountain Chapter of the NDIA actively encourages children to pursue Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, or STEM.
This week we visited kids from the 50th Space Wing Child Development Center at Schriever AFB to talk about STEM and astronauts. Our special guest “astronaut”, Shea McCoy, got a chance to experience what it’s like to wear a space suit with all of the life-support systems needed in space. The kids learned how challenging it is for astronauts to live and operate in space, and that through science and engineering our nations brightest minds are able to overcome those challenges and have fun doing it.