Teachers Explore Wonders of Space Science
Got Space? District VI teachers do! Twenty-four District VI elementary,
middle, and high school teachers completed a NASA workshop at the Kennedy
Space Center (KSC), Cocoa Beach, Florida on April 24-26, 2008.
The workshop, “NASA Connections: Integrating Space Education in the Science
Classroom,” consisted of five sessions. The first session, “NASA a
Historical Perspective of the First 50 years,” was conducted on the
seven-hour bus trip to the center. This consisted of video segments from
“The Right Stuff” (Mercury), “From the Earth to the Moon” (Apollo), and
“Hail Columbia” (Shuttle).
The second session, “Plant Growth Chamber Workshop,” was conducted at the
KSC Educator Resource Center (ERC) and presented by NASA education
officials. Teachers participated in a series of “hands-on” classroom
activities including “Plants in Space” and “Rocketry.”
“The best part of the workshop included a behind-the-scenes tour of the
Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB), the largest building on earth by volume,”
said Dr. Chris Spraggins, Chemistry, AP Biology teacher and District VI
Georgia Science Teacher Association (GSTA) Director. “The building has a
perimeter of one mile and the capacity to hold the Empire State Building
inside with room to spare.”
NASA officials told the group the building sometimes experiences its own
weather system. The teachers also visited the ISSC building where space
shuttles are repaired and maintained. NASA engineers walked the group under
the shuttle Atlantis where heat tiles were being replaced for Atlantis’s
next mission in December. The group then boarded the NASA shuttle bus and
received a tour of launch complex 39 A where Shuttle and Apollo missions
were launched.
The third session, “Astronaut Training,” was held at the Astronaut Hall
of Fame. Teachers participated in a number of training simulations including
s shuttle launch, micro-gravity, and hyper-gravity situations.
The fourth session, “Student Experiments in Space through High Altitude
Balloons,” was presented by Luther Richardson of Columbus High. Columbus
High has developed the only high school High Altitude Balloon Program in the
United States. These scientific balloons are launched to an altitude of
100,000 feet and carry a payload up to 12 pounds. Experiments are exposed to
space conditions such as radiation, little pressure, and extremely cold
temperatures (-20 C). Balloons are usually launched near Eufaula, Alabama,
and are tracked by GPS to somewhere near Americus, Georgia, where they are
retrieved. There have been four successful launches thus far, carrying over
30 student experiments to the edge of space.
The workshop concluded with a session entitled, “”NASA: The Future of the
U.S. Space Program.” A PowerPoint show of the Ares rocket program that will
take people back to the moon was also presented.
District VI Workshop Participants
Katie Adams
Scott Chandler
Berderia Fuller
Carol Gilchrist
Cheryl Hampel
Marilyn Hayes |
Terri Hedger
Laura Hornsby
Brenda Howell
Carole Mashburn
Karen McDavid
Troy McGarr |
Thadias Oliver
Ronette Oller
Lori Pope
Chris Reed
Mimi Reese
Luther Richardson |
Mary Sanks
Tiffani Smith
Laura Solomons
Chris Spraggins
Quleria Thomas
Ruth Withrow |
The workshop was planned and designed by Columbus High teachers Luther
Richardson, Physics and Astronomy, and Dr. Chris Spraggins, Chemistry, AP
Biology, and District VI GSTA Director.
