By Louise Ho (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-08-28 09:02

Six children from Hong Kong won the Best Team Award for a space training program in the United States.

The Best Team winners of the US Space Camp training program pose for photo in Hong Kong yesterday. [China Daily]

The students talked about their experience at the space camp at a ceremony yesterday.

The team of four boys and two girls aged 8 to 11, who had been selected from 2,000 children, completed a three-day training at the US Space Camp at Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama in mid-August.

At the Space Camp, the students took part in different exercises to learn space flight, such as simulated moonwalk and building and launching their own model rockets.

"Their outstanding team spirit has won them The Best Team Award," said Peter Yip, senior manager-marketing support of MassMutual Asia Ltd at yesterday's ceremony. The insurance company sponsored the Hong Kong team for the ninth year.

"Impressed with the Hong Kong children's performance, trainers at the camp said they were enthusiastic learners with good space knowledge," he said.

Experience at the Space Camp also brought positive changes to the children, said their parents.

"The camp has built up the confidence of my son, an inquisitive youth who aspires to be a pilot," said Angelina Chan, mother of 11-year-old Christopher Chan from King George V School.

The mother also said her son, as a reward, got a chance to talk to the retired US astronaut John Blaha at Kennedy Space Center in Orlando at the end of the program.

While the children of his age read comics, my son reads legal and military books, said Angelina.

Besides Chinese and English, he speaks German, French, Japanese and Spanish and is learning Italian, she added.

However, she does not want to get Christopher tested if he is an exceptionally gifted student. "I don't want to put pressure on him," she said.

The youngest of the six children, eight-year-old Branden Yau, is also a gifted student. Currently studying in grade 5 at The Independent Foundation Schools Academy, he jumped grades twice.

"He wants to jump grade again," said his mother Jeanne Yau. "But I won't force him. I'll see how he is doing this year."

Branden, who has been learning Chinese martial arts and Taekwondo for one and a half year, has learnt lots of space knowledge for the summer, she said.

"He has also learnt how to express himself properly on stage in Cantonese. Chinese has always been the hardest area for him," she added.