Pierson astronomy teacher Rick Gold helps students connect to Challenger Learning Center.
| TOP STORY |
THE SAG HARBOR EXPRESS
ISSUE DATE: 05/15/03 May 2003
Pierson Do You Read Us: These Kids Are Mission Control
by Beth Young
Nearly every boy (and some girls, too), if he doesn't go through a phase where he wants to be a paleontologist, goes through a phase where he wants to be an astronaut. For most, the dream ends, and years later all that remains is a few sew-on patches from NASA missions and a few posters and books explaining astronomy and space science buried in a back closet or attic.
But for Pierson High School science teacher Rick Gold and sixteen of his lucky students, the dream has taken on a new, tangible identity.
This is the first time in six years that Pierson has held an astronomy class, and they've paired up with the Challenger Learning Center in Wheeling, West Virginia, to offer a hands-on learning program that allows the students to act as mission control for a virtual space station crew.
Last Thursday morning, the mission crew met in the computer lab for their link-up to Space Station Alpha, through the internet and a video link with a flight director at the Challenger Learning Center.
The students had been preparing for "Mission Day" since early March, studying solar astronomy, radiation, the fundamentals of electrical power and life support, and when they arrived at the computer lab they broke up into groups according to their specialized area, with one team of students tracking solar storms, one tracking radiation, another monitoring astronaut life support systems and another controlling the electronics systems of the mock space station.
Gold, an enthusiastic teacher, bounced from station to station wearing a NASA jacket and hat, looking the part of the ultimate space-obsessed science teacher, answering questions and warning students of the grave dangers the astronauts would face without proper direction from them.
"We just watched the space shuttle take off, and they're warning us of a solar storm," he whispered. "The students have to monitor the storm, and make recommendations for the safety of the crew."
Like a scene from Apollo 13 or Space Camp, the students hunkered down in their white NASA shirts, sharpening their pencils and plugging away at their calculators to provide detailed calculations for the crew, with Gold zipping from station to station, warning of missing decimal places and hasty calculations, and despite the hum of the ever-present computers, most of the hard work still lay between the heads of the students and the paper on which they did their calculations.
The mission control crew of 10th, 11th and 12th graders had to handle rising levels of radiation, both x-rays and protons, and increasing levels of carbon dioxide threatening the lives of the shuttle crew.
The specialized nature of the study is one that Gold finds very encouraging about this popular elective course, which has been revived after a six year hiatus.
"It's an opportunity for them to pursue individualized education," he said. "It's a project course, and four times a year, the kids get to pick a research presentation, from black holes to rocketry to exobiology to living in space."