[MARCH 6, 2006]
Sixth-grade Lincoln Junior High students became
astronauts and mission control scientists this last week. Four
groups took separate space missions at the Challenger Learning
Center in Bloomington. Two groups attended on Wednesday and two on
Thursday. While one group was taking their space mission in the
morning, the other went to the ISU planetarium and the Prairie
Aviation Museum. Then the groups switched in the afternoon.
[Click
here for pictures]
Heritage In Flight Museum in Lincoln sponsored the Wednesday morning
class. Lincoln business leaders (to be named in an upcoming press
release) sponsored two classes, and a grant covered one class.
Lincoln Junior High science teacher Mrs. Laura Irwin coordinated
the program for the Lincoln students. This was Mrs. Irwin's third
year to take classes to the center. The space mission program is
primarily designed to integrate into a school's science program, but
it is also multi-academic in application so that students are
assigned roles that favor their strengths in math, science and
language arts.
For example Mrs. Irwin said that she put students strong in math
on the navigation team, and students who were better in language or
had an interest in photography were put on the communications/press
team. There are six other teams where Mrs. Irwin said she "placed
students using their skills to the best of their ability."
Practice for those roles begins weeks in advance in the
classroom, so that "when the kids are there [at the Challenger
Center] they actually jump into their roles," she said.
The program was integrated into an eight-week segment that
included a unit on the solar system, a unit on the universe, and
then four weeks were spent implementing lesson plans that prepared
the students for the Challenger program.
Mrs. Irwin has discovered that the process provides ample
opportunities to remind or instill in the students the importance of
following directions. That is something that even we, as adults need
reminding of, she said.
Participation in the program also required the students to sign
academic and behavior contracts that began back in November.
Students were encouraged with the incentive of participation in the
program.
A couple of other attributes to the program are opportunities for
problem-based learning, or PBL, and group cooperation, which often
go hand in hand. In PBL the students are presented with a problem
and told to go out and find the answer(s). This was a little
uncomfortable for me to do, Mrs. Irwin said. Students are typically
given the answer in advance with traditional teaching methods.
However, Mrs. Irwin said that she was impressed by the students'
answers to questions using PBL. They came up with solutions that not
only made good sense but also were things she had not thought of.
Heritage In Flight liaison Curt Fox observed the Wednesday
morning class. He said that Mrs. Irwin had prepared her class well,
and the kids just slipped into their roles as members of the space
station and mission control teams. They were excited and became
completely focused on the success of the mission: to rendezvous with
a comet.
After their return the communications/press team prepared a
PowerPoint presentation that was given during Heritage In Flight's
monthly meeting at the Logan County Airport on Saturday afternoon.
HIF members gave the presenters positive feedback not only for their
presentation but also said that they showed that the class had taken
it seriously and gotten a lot out of the experience.
"Looks like you have the makings of a couple of future senators
in this group," Clyde Zellers said. They did a great job of showing
their hard work and how they had to keep everyone on the same track,
he added.
Students' comments illustrated how much they enjoyed the program.
As part of the navigation team in mission control I had to
think hard, rather than just follow directions.
The press has to know what everyone is doing at all times.
It provided an opportunity to get to know people from other
classes that we didn't know very well.
"The flight directors make it fun," Mrs. Irwin said. "They are
awesome."
Lincoln Junior High teachers Mrs. Parker, Mrs. Jones and Mrs.
Carroll accompanied the other three classes to the center. A special
recognition was given to Mrs. Searby, who teaches sixth grade
special education, and to homeroom teacher Miss Boehme, who stayed
back at school.
The students named the comet they discovered for their teachers
and the number of students working on the mission, Comet Irwin/Boehme
28.
This is the second time HIF has sponsored a class trip to the
Challenger Learning Center. Last year HIF sponsored a class taught
by Doug Rader from Chester-East Lincoln School. It is HIF's goal is
to do this once each year for a different Lincoln school, Fox said.
He made the following observations:
It was another
wonderful experience. I can't say enough about the staff at the CLC,
including Stacey and Janet. Their knowledge and enthusiasm was
contagious.
Since last year,
the CLC has added a video to their space vehicle that takes the
astronauts from the ground to the space station, and it is nothing
less than awesome. They can watch the takeoff and actually feel the
rocket blast them into space. The video shows the departure from
Earth and the approach to the space station and has a heads-up
display of the launch vehicle and all of the numbers that would be
relevant to a trip from Earth to orbit. It also shows the re-entry
as the astronauts return to Earth, including a large image of the
earth with a shining pinpoint at Bloomington's location.
This is the only
CLC facility in the country that has this video and associated
software, and more capabilities are on the way, including classes
for fourth- and fifth-graders.
Learn more about the Challenger Learning Center and the programs
that they offer for youth and adults. The center is located at
Prairie Aviation Museum in Bloomington. Visit online at
http://www.challengercentralillinois.org/.
