Today was the first official day of activities at Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center. I say official because yesterday was really day one but it was simply a travel and move in day. We got our swag bag yesterday (t-shirts, water bottle, flight suit, backpack) and then I actually snuck out to have dinner with my brother-in-law John and his family since they live here in Huntsville. I also had a chance to meet my roommates for the week, Diane and Diana, who are teachers from the U.S. but teaching in Guadalajara, Mexico, at an international school.
This morning officially began with breakfast and orientation. I happened to sit down next to Mr. Bean - Andrew Bean that is! Andrew is a science teacher from Chicago. Turned out we are also on the same team - Team Harmony. (By the end of the day, we also realized that his family is from Ohio and so is my husbands. Who knows maybe we are related?!
After getting organized into our teams and putting on our flight suits for the first time, we had a chance to meet Ed Buckbee, one of the original organizers of Space Camp and public relations for NASA. Ed told fascinating stories about the beginnings of the "Space Race" and his work with the Mercury astronauts (the likes of Alan Shepard and John Glenn.) He continued working for NASA through the Gemini program and the Apollo moon missions. He then worked with Werner von Braun to get the Rocket Center opened and eventually then Space Camp added to the experiences here. Great talk with fascinating facts and stories!
We had a chance after lunch to meet with a couple of former educator Space Campers and hear how they brought back their learning to their classrooms. Martha, from Mexico, started a rocket club. She shared with us some of her lessons which got me thinking about some fun adaptations to straw rocket and bottle rocket lessons to create real opportunities for inquiry learning for kids. Why not give the kids a straw and a plain sheet of paper and let them figure out the best shapes for fins and the best length and cone shape? Do we always have to provide the "cookie cutter" instructions for how to make a rocket? I love lessons where you create a need first and the learning comes naturally along with that.
Janelle, a science teacher from Atlanta, then presented us a challenge get ourselves off Mars by building a radio tower to transmit a signal back to Earth. Now we were really doing the marshmallow challenge http://marshmallowchallenge.com/Welcome.html which I do every year with my 5th graders. What I loved with this lesson though was creating a story for why the kids are building the tallest tower out of spaghetti and a marshmallow. Janelle had us working to take a lesson and find a way to put a "space" spin on it.
Janelle, a science teacher from Atlanta, then presented us a challenge get ourselves off Mars by building a radio tower to transmit a signal back to Earth. Now we were really doing the marshmallow challenge http://marshmallowchallenge.com/Welcome.html which I do every year with my 5th graders. What I loved with this lesson though was creating a story for why the kids are building the tallest tower out of spaghetti and a marshmallow. Janelle had us working to take a lesson and find a way to put a "space" spin on it.
To finish up our day we had two last presentations. The first was background information on Space Hardware. We learned by comparing the old Discovery/Columbia-type shuttles to the new Orion plans for hopeful missions to Mars. Part of this learning was playing with fire! Fire related to burning fuels and igniting rockets into and around in space. I learned a new word too. Hyperbolic = when two chemicals ignite as soon as they meet
And the last presentation today was by a former NASA astronaut, Dr. Dan Thomas. He flew on four Columbia & Discovery missions to space. He told fascinating stories of what the life of an astronaut is like both on Earth and in space. He talked about how the shuttle would orbit the Earth 16 times a day (meaning you have 45 minutes of daylight and then 45 minutes of night continuously!) But I think the information I want to bring back to my GT kids (who hate to take risks and not be perfect all the time!) is that he was rejected by NASA three times in seven years before he got a yes at the age of 35 to come and train for four years to take his first flight at 39. Talk about a great role model for perseverance and hard work!
Anxious to see what tomorrow brings as we are headed to the aviator challenge. I also can't wait to get to know Team Harmony teachers better. There are 15 of us from all over the world - Philippines, Canada, India, Mexico, Russia, Romania, and all over the U.S. Here are a few parting shots from the day...