Making Space for Science Lessons

Before they were led to the Columbia orbiter, the 20 teachers had to remove or tape down their earrings, rings, bracelets and watches.

They were entering a “foreign object debris” controlled area, where even a small piece of jewelry could damage the Columbia’s highly sensitive, heat-resistant tiles, which can withstand 2,600 degrees.

Small undetected objects could float in the spaceship when it travels at zero gravity, said Jim Morris, an industrial engineer at the Boeing Palmdale facility.

“We don’t want astronauts swallowing [them] or [them] getting into the avionics,” Morris said.

Despite the restrictions, the teachers were giddy Thursday during their VIP tour designed to help them use more science in their classrooms.

The kindergarten-through-12th-grade teachers are alumni of the “Boeing Educators to Space Camp,” an annual program that sends about 40 teachers from around the U.S. and other nations to nonprofit space centers in Huntsville, Ala., and Houston, Texas, where they learn how to integrate science into their everyday curriculum.

“It’s to stimulate interest in math, science and space among educators and to then have them instill that same interest in their students,” said Javier M. Mendoza, a spokesman for Boeing, which sponsors the program.

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In a huge hangar at U.S. Air Force Plant 42, teachers filed past photographs of smiling shuttle astronauts on the walls. The interior of the Columbia was exposed as workers--some in protective “bunny suits” and boots made of lint- and static-free nylon to keep the ship free of any foreign material--inspected the orbiter.

The teachers posed for photos and shot videotapes of the $2-billion machine.

“I am in awe, speechless,” said Sue O’Brien, a sixth-grade teacher at Rio Vista Elementary School in Saugus, who taped the Columbia visit with a hand-held camera.

The Columbia, which has traveled 120 million miles in its 26 missions, is in Palmdale for a $100-million upgrade before taking its next voyage in the spring.

On Thursday, the teachers also toured Boeing’s plant in Canoga Park, where they saw a $45-million space shuttle main engine.

Boeing selects the schools that participate in the program and the schools pick the teachers. All expenses are paid by the Seattle-based aerospace company, Mendoza said.

This year’s group of 32 teachers leaves for the space camp July 17. They will spend about 10 days at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville and at the Space Center in Houston.

During space camp, teachers take part in simulated space shuttle missions, listen to talks by astronauts and learn about the NASA space program. Several teachers said space camp gave them renewed enthusiasm for science.

“You just get fired up. You want to talk about the ultimate application of science--space,” said Roger Brossmer, a science teacher at Downey High School. “You’re living it, touching stuff that’s really been in space. It brings it to life.”

Dana Vinson, a second-grade teacher at Fulbright Avenue Elementary School in Canoga Park, said her 1998 space camp experience changed her view of how science should be taught.

“It took the intimidation away,” said Vinson, 33, of North Hollywood.

Vinson has been put in charge of her school’s science committee, which revamped the science curriculum and organized three annual science fairs at the school. Now students learn about propulsion, rockets, how balloons expand, how gravity works and that the space shuttle travels at 17,000 mph.

“This has to be taught or those kids are going to be in big trouble,” said Vinson, who noted that Fulbright Elementary is 90% Latino and a majority of its students come from low-income families.

Vinson incorporates science and shuttle-related information in her lesson plans, even if she is giving language instruction.

When students watched the televised launch of the NASA shuttle mission carrying John Glenn in 1998, Vinson asked them to write in their journals about what they would have wanted to learn had they been aboard the orbiter.

Teachers said their own enthusiasm for space rubs off on their students.

“My class goes absolutely crazy for space study,” said O’Brien, 31. “You have 30 students in front of you and everyone wants to be an astronaut.”