The summer component of UB brings students to the campus of FSU for a 6-week educational experience that is designed to give students an idea of what college life is like. Every summer a topic is selected to explore and is woven into the curriculum, field trips and the residential life component.

With an integrated curriculum comprised of core classes in writing, literature, math and science, UB students covered many topics including “The Hero’s Journey.” With Joseph Campbell’s “Power of Myth” as a reference, participants also studied Luke Skywalker in the modern myth “Star Wars.”

After listening to H.G. Well’s radio broadcast of “War of the Worlds,” students formed small groups and wrote their own original science-fiction radio programs. With sound effects and original commercials included, they taped their dramas in FSU’s broadcast studios and produced a CD.

Students studied gravity, comets, black holes, worm holes, astronomical scales and the space shuttle. Current events and U.S. space policies were also examined. Following a unit on the Wright Brothers and the principles of flight and aerodynamics, an airplane competition was held to see which design produced the longest flight.

The participants too trips to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Greenbank, W.Va., the Smithsonian’s Udvar-Hazy Air and Space Museum near Dulles Airport and NASA’s Air & Space Center in Hampton, Va.

Upward Bound is a national, federally funded pre-college program. Frostburg State University’s Upward Bound program serves 60 Allegany County students who attend area high schools. The program has both a summer and academic year component.