Bernard Harris talks space travel to student campers

Former U.S. astronaut Bernard Harris entertained and educated about 50 area middle school students on Thursday morning at the ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp on the Baton Rouge campus. Harris, the first African-American to walk in space, answered questions and talked to students about space travel and the future of space exploration.

He also was the led an exercise involving the students that required the campers to drop a "Mars Lander" that student teams made with household materials. The goal was to get their lander to fall near a designated spot and to have as soft and perfect a landing as possible.

The event was held in the High-Tech room in the Pinchback Engineering Building and was assisted by SU engineering faculty along with volunteers from ExxonMobil. The ExxonMobil Foundation and Harris have teamed up for 9 consecutive years to bring math and science campus to more than 9,700 underserved students across the U.S.

The camp at Southern, is a two-week, all-expenses-paid program. It is one of 20 camps, founded by Harris, being held on university campuses nationwide.