Former Astronaut Bernard Harris, the first African American to walk in space, spent July 15 with 50 Delaware Valley middle school students participating in the two-week ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp, hosted by Temple University's College of Science and Technology.

“You represent the current America and the future America,” Harris told the campers. “We have to make sure no matter what community you come from, that you have the opportunity to succeed. For you, the ‘sky is the limit.’”

Harris told the campers that watching United States’ 1969 space walk inspired him to become an astronaut. He related stories about being accepted into the astronaut corps in 1990 and later traveling aboard the space shuttle and walking in space.

“If I can do it, you can do it too,” said Harris. “The only thing that limits your success, your dreams, is you.”

Following his talk, Harris assisted the students with a “raft rally” designed to demonstrate Archimedes’ principle of buoyancy. Working in teams, each group was given two small pieces of aluminum foil and four plastic drinking straws and asked to design and build a raft. When complete, the campers tested their designs, placing them in water and adding pennies until they took on water. Winning teams were decided based on the number of pennies each raft could support before sinking — this year’s winner held 169.

 

Harris created the Bernard Harris Foundation in 1998 and has partnered with ExxonMobil to sponsor the summer science camps for the past four years. Designed to enhance middle school students’ knowledge in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the camps are held at 30 college and university campuses throughout the United States. Activities include classroom study, experiments, individual and group projects, weekly field excursions and motivational guest speakers.

This is the third year that Temple’s College of Science and Technology has hosted the camp.