Settling in...

back to Dubuque and I've been back to school to pick up preserved critters, back to camp to deliver preserved critters, out to Peosta for a much needed/overdue haircut, and out to camp again to help with check out!

There's no place like Home

Current time: 12:02 AM (June 23).

My flight was delayed twice more, to 6:25, then to 7:00 PM. A cheer rang out through the waiting area when our gate agent confirmed that yes, our plane had in fact taken off, and was headed to Huntsville.

As a result of delays upon delays, many people shifted onto other flights... which opened up seats on the previously full plane. I was sitting in an aisle seat, so I went up to the gate agent and asked if I could get into a seat by myself. Then, I asked if I could resurrect my flight to Dubuque that I had cancelled at 10:30 AM. Rebecca, the gate goddess replied, "I don't see why not," and got me a seat on the 9:20 flight from Chicago to DBQ. She then created a new baggage tag and proceeded to walk it out to the tarmac to reattach to my bag. God bless her - seriously... she had been at the airport since 5 AM, was working 7 hours past her shift end, and had been yelled at by multiple angry people who were missing flights. She definitely went above and beyond (especially after another gate agent said getting my Dubuque flight back was impossible).

Finally we watched our American Eagle plane touch down in Huntsville and taxi to the gate. The crew on the plane stated, "We want to turn this plane around as fast as possible," and the crowd responded with, "How fast can the people on the plane get off?" As most of us had been waiting for hours, we were ready to head north.

Our crew member shared that the plane had suffered some major wind damage that had taken several hours to repair. Then they took off from Chicago and about halfway to Huntsville had a mechanical problem, which caused them to turn around and return to Chicago as Huntsville has no mechanics to work on the issue.

I have to say that I had one of the most beautiful flights today from Huntsville to Chicago - beautiful clouds, beautiful sunset, and smooth sailing.

Arriving in Chicago was not as smooth - they have endured a day of delays, cancellations, power outages, and weather. We sat on the tarmac after landing for about 20 minutes because our gate had a plane at it. Then we got close to the gate, but the crew wasn't there - so we waited about 20 more minutes to get connected to the jet bridge. At this point, it was 9:20 and I was absolutely convinced that I was sleeping in O'Hare and arriving on the early morning flight to Dubuque. Once we were allowed to get off the plane and I picked up my valet bag, I headed quickly up the jet bridge, where two of my space camp friends were at the desk finding out about my flight. Was it still on time? Was it delayed? Finally we found out it was delayed as well (from 9:20 to 9:40), so I jogged/walked from terminal G to terminal L. As I passed through other terminals I definitely felt lucky - there were many cots set up with people camping out waiting for flights - I was definitely hoping I wouldn't have to claim one of those places. I arrived at gate L4 to see that my plane was still boarding so I made it in the nick of time!

After a cloudy flight to Dubuque, we touched down around 10:55 PM, and to my amazement, my checked bag also made it home!

It has been an adventure - one that I am glad I don't have to repeat for awhile. I ended up canceling my children's lit class for Thursday because until 9:50 tonight I had no idea if I would in fact make it home. That's a worry for another time. Goodnight all!

Still waiting

Current time 4:04 PM - departure has changed from 3 PM, to 3:30 PM, to 5:45 PM, to likely after 6 PM. My new plan is to take the O'Hare shuttle to Rockford, stay overnight in Rockford, and have my buddy Steph pick me up and take me to Dubuque on Thursday. So I've cancelled class again - which is super disappointing/annoying. Seriously, this is getting very complicated.

Just had a huge cell move through the airport - lots of rain, thunder, and lightning. For awhile it was raining so hard, we couldn't even see the the control tower or the tarmac.

Gee Mom, I wanna come home

A timeline of activities in the past 14 hours.

10:45 PM - reading my nook in my uncomfortable bed, all packed and ready to leave for the airport at 5 AM.

11:00 PM - sleeping

11:13 PM - American Airlines calls my cell phone (which is on silent so I miss the call) to tell me that my flight at 7:20 AM to Chicago is cancelled.

4:00 AM - alarm clock goes off

4:10 AM - get out of bed, take a shower.

4:30-4:45 AM - final packing, look for cell phone, ipod, and wallet. Hmm... cell phone has a voice mail.

4:45 AM - check voicemail and hear that flight has been cancelled.

4:50 AM - call American Airlines to reschedule the flight, which is now at 12:55 PM.

4:55 AM - walk down to the lobby to let the space camp officials know that I am not riding the shuttle to the airport, but will be staying board the shuttle for the Education Building at 8:30 AM.

5:00 AM - back to my room; curl up on the couch, read TH online, finally fall back asleep approximately 5:45-6 AM.

6:15 AM - roommate Bonnie (also on the Chicago 12:55 PM flight) sees my luggage and realizes I am still here. Groggily answer her, go back to sleep.

7:45 AM - wake up, again.

8:10 AM - head for the lobby with my luggage.

8:25 AM - on the bus for the education center.

8:40 AM - eat breakfast with the Space campers

9:00 AM - head to the Space and Rocket center and Davidson center. Say goodbye to the Apollo 16 capsule and the Saturn 5 rocket. More gift shopping...

9:45 AM - head back to the education building

10:15 AM - on the bus to the airport

10:30 AM - checking in with American Airlines - my 12:55 PM flight is still on time. My 3:45 PM flight to Dubuque is cancelled. The 9:45 PM flight to Dubuque is full. Decide to fly to Chicago and get home from there.

11:00 AM - start looking for rental car options

11:25 AM - meet up with other stranded honeywell teachers who are waiting to get out of Huntsville.

11:40 AM - flight gets delayed to 2:15 PM departure.

12:00 PM - start calling rental car companies - no cars available, no trucks available. Check multiple companies, no one has cars.

12:15 PM - look in to shuttle from O'Hare to Rockford.

12:30 PM - call my buddy Steph and beg her to come pick me up in Rockford. She agrees. Told her I'd keep her updated on when I actually leave.

1:00 PM - flight is now delayed until 3 PM

1:10 PM - airline gate attendant shares that our flight's plane had wind damage in Chicago. It was switched with another plane and fixed. She also reported they are boarding in Chicago now. They are also only flying 10 planes out an our due to electrical issues/storms. With a major airport like that, this is a huge deal.

1:15 PM - discussed with my other stranded travelers how this would effect all of those traveling to space camp today. We decided we were collectively thankful that our travel issues were on the way home, not the way out.

Currently time 1:38 PM - current departure is schedule for 3 PM. I am booked through to Chicago, and I will figure things out once I get there. Keeping my fingers crossed that a car will be available - if not, I have a backup plan. I am very happy that I don't need to rebook my Dbq connection, as I opted out of it at the ticket counter (since I wouldn't get in tonight anyway). Currently there are 10 people standing in line to talk to the gate attendant about rebooking connections.

I have decided to be very zen about this and just go with the flow. Sitting in the airport is not terrible, but I'd really like to be back in Iowa. :-)

Soaring Like Eagles

Today was my final day in Huntsville, AL and I spent the day completing a Civil Air Patrol training. Forty teachers who participated in the Honeywell weeks could elect to participate for the rock bottom price of about $85, plus the cost of membership in the Civil Air Patrol. Honestly, I didn't really know what the purpose of the Civil Air Patrol even was until today. The CAP works with communities, they help mentor young adults especially to interest them in aerospace, engineering, or military careers, and they provide aerospace education to teachers.

The first part of the day was spent learning about how flight works, as well as building a few different types of things to fly. I have to tell you, my knowledge of flight is nominal at best, but by the end of the morning I was able to say pitch, yaw, thrust, and lift with the bet of them! We built a balsa wood plane, similar to what we built in Inventing Flight many years back at the Putnam Museum. We also built a glider made of a styrofoam plate - which was a lot of fun... it definitely flew better than any plane that I've ever built with paper. We were able to experiment with our glider's different flaps (fancy names that are already packed in my suitcase full of notes), making the glider go higher in the air, to the right, to the left, or even crash land! We built a very cool glider of the space shuttle and was similar to the balsa plane - this one when released would fly straight up (like the shuttle) and glide to a safe landing (also like the shuttle). Finally we watched a video on Geobot, a futuristic flying saucer that is proving to be a very good option for flight - maybe we'll see flying saucers at the airport some day!

The second part of the day had us traveling to the Huntsville Airport for a TOP or Teacher Orientation Program Fight. I was very excited, as we were going to get a ride in a small plane. It was not a Cessna, it was some type of plane that is very rare in the United States that is produced in Australia. Our pilot is a Lt. Col in the Air Force and he was very excited to show us the plane and teach us about flight. Our plane also had 3 CAP students, which was fun too! We flew south of Huntsville to an airport near the town of Cullman, AL. We landed at this airport and switched positions in the plane, allowing another person to sit next to the pilot. I was the first front seat passenger. Today was a stormy day in Huntsville with scattered thunderstorms popping up every so often. We were able to see thunderstorms on either side of us as we flew. In fact, once I was given the steering capability (yes, I have flown a plane now!), our pilot told me to fly in between the two thunderstorms! We stayed about 1800-3000 feet above the ground, so we definitely weren't high - and looking at the rain from the air was absolutely fascinating.

Once we landed in Cullman, we took off again to circle around the town to the south of the airport. Cullman was hit by a tornado in April when many cities were devastated here. From the air, the damage path was very evident, even 2 months after the storm. From the air I could see fallen trees, damaged roofs covered with tarps, ripped up sheet metal from larger buildings, and concrete pads where houses and businesses once stood. I also saw a large area on the edge of town filled with piles of burning debris... It was shocking to see damage of this magnitude. And it even wasn't terrible damage.

Finally we changed seats once more (this time while in the air), and headed back for the Huntsville airport. Our pilot asked if we were adventurous, and said that we could attempt to make our own vomit comet with the plane. The vomit comet, is a plane that NASA uses for zero-G or "weightlessness training." On Earth, it's not possible to have extended periods of time in weightlessness. Astronauts train for EVAs (space walks) using water, a special pool called the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston, TX. They also use a special airplane (nicknamed the Vomit Comet) which performs a series of parabolas in the air. If you've been on a roller coaster, it's the feeling you have when you reach the top of a hill and rush back down at top speed - your stomach drops. On the NASA plane, they can get between 30-45 seconds of weightlessness at a time, so they usually train with many parabolas in a row (hence, the vomit comet) In the little plane, because it's not really designed to be the vomit comet, you don't ever experience true zero-g... but you can reduce the gravity and cause small objects like pens to float for a few seconds. We completed 2 of these maneuvers on our flight today, before we headed back to the airport.

Once we touched down, we were greeted by airport staff who shared that lightning had been spotted near the airport, so we needed to leave the tarmac immediately and head indoors. Once inside, we realized the second half of our group wouldn't be flying (they had been inside in the air traffic control tower), which was a big bummer. We didn't get to see the control tower and instead headed back to the training center (Huntsville has had some problems with power since the tornadoes in Alabama).

Finally, the training day was complete, and Bonnie (my roommate and buddy from Illinois), Nancy (a buddy from Minnesota), and I headed off Space Camp grounds for dinner, then back to Charger Village to pack up!

Tomorrow will be an early one - 4 AM wake up! My bus for the airport leaves at 5 AM, and I am hopeful to be on a 7:20 AM flight to Chicago. Lots of storms predicted for Huntsville tonight and tomorrow - so I am crossing fingers that I'm able to get home. I have had an absolute blast, but I am very ready to sleep in my own bed!

Sorry for the lack of photos with today's blog posting. I'm working on getting photos online and I am too tired to mess with finding them tonight.

"Rip, Flip, and Stick"

Day 5 - Final day of space camp - gosh, I cannot believe it went so fast. Today was a fairly "low-key" day in terms of space activities, but fast paced in terms of lesson ideas and activities. The first session of the day was Martian Math. This session was full of ways to incorporate space themed math activities into the classroom with games, etc. One of my favorite games we played today was very interactive. Each person was given a nametag with a number on it. Then our

leader said a number and we had to create a way to get that number using the numbers - through addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, even including parenthesis... It was a very fun activity and being competitive, we tried to get large groups of people together. It would be a perfect get-to-know you activity for a math class or even for review.

We met with Stephanie Warren from NASA's Marshall Space Center who shared with us about the Lunar missions currently going on as well as provided some lesson ideas. We also learned about Space camps set up for students who are blind as well as students that are deaf.

A definite highly for me was viewing the IMAX movie Hubble. The Hubble Space Telescope One of the things that made this movie special for me was that I was in Houston at Johnson Space Center when this mission to fix the Hubble Space Telescope was in space. I remember watching the EVA at Wyle Laboratory with our friends working on 21st Century Explorers. I got to see the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, and the Hubble module that was used for training. It was an amazing IMAX to view, and I plan to see it again soon - as we arrived about 5-10

minutes late.

After lunch we learned about Mars... especially the Phoenix Mission. You can borrow sets of images taken from Phoenix from Arizona State and have students analyze them. We also built a egg drop lander after viewing 6 minutes of terror. Six minutes of terror is one of my favorite videos explaining how the rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars. Our egg survived the drop using balloon air bags and being cradled by a tetrahedron lined with card stock bumpers, cotton, and air inside a baggie.

We also completed an activity on Thermal protection. This was an engineering design challenge where we had to protect a brass screw from the heat of a propane flame using only a 6x6 sheet of aluminum foil and a 3x3 sheet of copper screen. The foil and screen could not be attached to the wooden dowel holding the screw or to the screw itself. The screw was attached to the wooden dowel with hot glue, and when it the heat built up, it would fall off. Our group worked together to design and build a thermal protection device, where we layered the copper screening with aluminum foil folded inside to insulate the screw. Unfortunately, our prototype wasn't very well suited for this experiment, although it did beat the control time of 5.6 seconds, making it 15.2 seconds before the screw fell off the dowel. It was a lot of fun and it made me really think about incorporating more engineering activities into my science class. One of the activities that NASA developed was building lunar growing containers. We will want to be able to grow our own food for long duration missions - how will that work in space? That would be a very fun way to liven up my plant unit, one that I normally dread. :-)

And the big moment - a rocket launch for our Estes rocket. We had about 30 minutes to complete this as they had to move up graduation ceremonies. We walked to Homer Hickum field to launch our rockets on the 16 person rocket launcher (pretty cool). My rocket sailed so brilliantly and high that it is now a permanent resident of a Huntsville grove of trees near the Space and Rocket Center.

It's official - I am a proud Honeywell Educator graduate of Space Camp! This experience was very much like my experience of receiving a green tie or a 10 or 15 year pin at CLC. I was very proud to complete this experience. We were able to receive our wings and turn our name badges from upside down to right-side up. In fact, the tradition is so important that we were scolded if our nametags were right-side up. So after our entire team graduated, we were able to "rip, flip, and stick" our name badges in the correct position. Tonight's ceremony was bittersweet - as much as I am looking forward to heading home, starting my children's lit class, seeing my buddies from Jefferson and CLC, I'm also going to miss Team Harmony terribly. This group of teachers is absolutely top-notch. They are all incredibly devoted, passionate, and fun. It is sad to think that the fun is over and that most will be headed home on flights tomorrow.

But for me... I get another day of fun... tomorrow is my Civil Air Patrol day. I joined the Civil Air Patrol as a result of Space Camp (before coming to Huntsville), and tomorrow I spend another day with activity training, and getting to fly in a Cessna. I am pretty excited! Another perk - we are supposedly done at 5 PM. Woot! It will be nice to get done earlier than 8:30, especially since I leave for the airport at 5 AM on Wednesday.

This camp has been one of the the best experiences of my life... I have met some of the most wonderful people, I now have people to visit across the US and world... I have learned so much about space, our history with space, and have many activities that I can take back to my classroom this fall and in the future. I would encourage every single teacher to consider applying for this awesome opportunity. Even though I came here not knowing a single person, I am leaving knowing over 100 of the friendliest, nicest people. It doesn't matter if you don't teach science, or even if you don't teach middle school. You just need to be passionate about encouraging students to dream, especially about STEM and space. This year over 1,100 teachers applied for the Honeywell camp, and they selected 220 participants from 47 states and 21 countries. I am so thankful to Honeywell who supported each teacher at this camp by providing the camp tuition as well as paying for transportation from our home destinations. I am re-energized and excited to incorporate so many new fun ideas into my classes this fall and beyond!

"1...2...3..."

Day 4 at Space Camp - another busy one as I am just getting home now. As usual, a great day. I can'tbelieve how quickly things are going and tomorrow when I update my blog I will have graduated from Space Camp!

The day started with group photos. Now I know how much they stink for campers - after my years of being on the opposite end escorting Weber Photography. But Suzi has never had to

take a picture of a group with 106 people in it. However, I did hear some of the same things like "hands down," "check your hair now," and "if you can't see the camera, the camera can't see you." Eventually we did get a group shot, which I believe we will be receiving a copy of, as well as a team shot of just team Harmony. The cool thing is that the photos are

underneath the Orbiter Pathfinder and the fuel tanks that are up high in the air and we've been walking underneath them the entire week.

Our next activity was our Discovery Mission. My role for this shuttle mission was on the International Space Station as the Station Commander... basically my role was to answer the speaker when a call came from mission control, to complete experiments in the Columbus module of the ISS, and to make sure that

everything ran smoothly. We had a "spider" escape and a "fire." We also all passed out from smoke inhalation and had a person who was planking. Another moment I will never forget was when one of the guys from my team received a call from his daughter (Father's Day) while we were on the ISS in the middle of our simulation. He talked to her, and stated that he had to go because he was 150 miles above Earth. All in all, a ton of fun - even though I liked Mission Control better.

After lunch, we were able to shoot off our bottle rockets - this would be something fun for camp! Then it was off to 2 sessions, one on the sun and sunspots and one on the Mercury Messenger mission (first orbiter around Mercury since the 1970's), moon

phases, and personal constellations. My favorite activity was personal constellations because it involved making a planetarium. We have talked about doing this at CLC for years - and this is the perfect way to do it. For this activity, we had a large planetarium made of black

liner, duct tape, garbage bag, and box fan. While the planetarium inflated, kids could use a graphing paper to code their name using a key. Then, they used the dots to draw in a constellation that they could make up, and write the story behind it. Pure imagination and creativity. Once the planetarium inflated, then you enter the planetarium and poke holes into the plastic. Do the holes let out the air? Yes, eventually, but the constant supply of fan air keeps

the "bubble" inflated. When you are inside and it is dark you can see tons of stars - and it is way cool! The person who ran the activity said that you can probably get easily 200 kids to put their personal constellations inside and still have room. I thought it was a great idea because I have access to the starlab for free, and don't really need to build my own starlab. But this would be a fun new thing to do. If you are interested in how to do this, check it out!

Final activity of the evening was a very nice dinner at the Davidson Center of the US Space and Rocket Center. We ate underneath the ceiling mounted Saturn 5 rocket, looking ahead to a live band, as well as the Apollo 16 capsule, the LEM simulator, and other national treasures. Just being able to be among all of those amazing artifacts was something you can never imagine. After dinner we were able to listen to Homer Hickum, the author of Rocket Boys (which was turned into a movie called "October Sky"), share his experiences learning to build rockets in Coalville, WV as a boy and later working for NASA. Rocket Boys is a memoir of his experiences. I was also able to get 2 of his books signed - so my pile of personal reading is getting rather substantial!

One of the best things about this experience is the people - it has been such a great experience to meet teachers from all over the US and world. We remarked tonight how close we have become. I know that this is the power of camp. Having so many team-building experiences with a group has brought us close very quickly. It's probably one of the most inspiring things that's happened to me in a long time. Our table shared some of our favorites tonight at dinner: from new friendships, to tackling the zipline even though people were scared to death, to the space missions, to just building community with other teachers... Space Camp is so much more than just space science - it's definitely something that has been life changing and inspiring to me... Through all of the experiences I've had, it's brought me a renewed sense of passion for teaching and sharing what I love. It's gotten me to think and inquire! And most of all, it's really shown me how important a teacher's passion and believing in a student affects that student over the long-haul! I am so lucky to be on the team that I'm on - TEAM HARMONY is AMAZING!

It's not rocket science, oh wait... yes it is

Day 3 of Space Camp is now in the books - and another busy day. I am actually happy to say

that we got back to Charger Village early tonight - and by early, I mean 8:30 PM. :-)

Today started with a visit to the Davidson Center at the US Space and Rocket Center Museum. This building houses exhibits on the big rockets once built in Huntsville - like the Saturn 5. The Saturn 5 rocket is the one that took the Apollo missions to the Moon. The picture to the left is of the Saturn 5, one of 3 on display in the world. This rocket is over 300 feet long (about 15 stories high). And in the Davidson Center it is mounted on the ceiling so you can stand underneath it. We were also able to view the Mercury trainer capsule. This is the spacecraft that Alan Shepherd orbited around Earth for 15 minutes (the first American to go into space) and that John Glenn orbited Earth 3 times in (first American to orbit Earth). We also saw the Gemini training capsule, used by two astronauts for longer duration space flights. The Gemini program was developed to determine that we had the capability to travel longer periods of the time in space in order to lead up to flights to the Moon with Apollo.

One of the coolest things on display was the real Apollo 16 capsule. Apollo 16's crew was John Young, Charlie Duke, and Ken Mattingly (the astronaut who was pulled from the Apollo 13 mission days before lift off because of his exposure to the measles). This particular capsule was named Casper, the popular cartoon character, (all of the capsules were named by the astronauts who flew them) in order to connect with children. The mission is famous for the moon buggy grand prix, where they raced the moon buggy on the surface of the moon. One of the neatest things to see was how the heat shield on Apollo 16's capsule was cracked/damaged. As our leader said, "When it looks like that, we know the heat shield did its job."

We also were able to view a model of the Lunar Excursion Module (or LEM) and the moon buggy. The moon buggy was able to be folded into a box the size of an office desk for transport to the Moon.

Also on display was a Moon Rock from the Apollo 12 mission. Below the rock is an autograph from Apollo astronaut Alan Bean stating, "I remember this rock. This was my favorite one." Whether that's true or not, it's always very neat to see a national treasure on display. Having training with NASA has allowed me to see the moon rocks several times, but it never disappoints me! Other Apollo mission artifacts are on display, which are just fun to see. After listening to Ed Buckbee (NASA PR during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo years) as well as viewing, "In the Shadow of the Moon," I have a renewed appreciation and interest in the legends of space exploration. It is so cool to learn the history of this program!

One of the more unique national treasures on display is the mobile quarantine facility for Apollo 12. And the story of this Airstream trailer is very interesting. During the Apollo program, NASA believed that there wasn't life on the Moon, but yet could not be 100% certain. So in order to not put the astronauts or other citizens in danger, the astronauts were put in quarantine for before their flight and up to 3 weeks after their flight. During that time, they lived in a modified Airstream trailer. The Apollo 11 trailer was in Huntsville at the Museum for many years but was moved to the Smithsonian. The Apollo 12 trailer was believed to have been destroyed in a fire, however it actually was used for multiple purposes including quarantine facilities for researchers exposed to Ebola virus and quarters for fish researchers. The US Space and Rocket Museum by chance got this treasure back and restored it to it's former glory. Here's the entire story. Eventually the quarantine process was ended after Apollo 14.

After a visit to the museum, it was time to hit the gift shop - where I did some damage. And then it was off to mission training for our next space mission. This time I was selected for the role of SSC, Station Commander on the International Space Station. Life on the ISS is much slower paced than Mission Control. My job is to oversee the ISS and make sure others are doing their jobs like experiments. We may have some unexpected things happen, so only our mission will tell what really happens. The ISS looks very similar to what it looks like in space, except that storage would be on all sides because there is no up or down in space. :-)

Lunch was followed by three curriculum sessions. We learned about ways to integrate writing/language arts into space science - I have many good ideas to use next year! Afterwards we made bottle rockets which we couldn't launch due to a swiftly moving thunderstorm. Then we put together solid fuel rockets or Estes rockets. We will be launching rockets on Monday!

After dinner and a visit to my dino buddy Sue from the Field Museum in Chicago... it's a little ironic that I saw her in Chicago in 2000 and now in Huntsville in 2011, then it was time for Aviation Challenge! This activity is held at a specially designed aquatic facility referred to as the lake (it's actually a man-made pool with a sandy bottom). The purpose of the facility is to train for water rescues with different simulators. One, called the Dunker, simulated a helicopter crash into the water. For this one we sat inside a "helicopter" which was lowered into water (the water just comes rushing in) and then we had to swim out the window. After we completed that simulator, we swam to one called the Lifter. This simulator was a wire basket, simulation being lifted out of the water into a helicopter. We were lifted about 5 feet up, but it was still an experience. My favorite simulation by far was the zipline. For this simulation we got into harnesses (yes, harnesses) and once strapped in, climbed up 3 flights (35 feet) to a deck where we were attached to a zipline backwards. The reason we went backwards was because we were simulating a parachute landing, and going forwards would pull us underwater. The ride was quick - 30ish seconds, but so worth it! Tons of fun! Best part was that this activity was the final of the day, so we didn't have to change back into street clothes and be wet and gross. As soon as we finished, we headed back to Charger Village for the evening.

I can't believe how quickly this is going - it seems like I have known my team forever... and I am lucky because I have a great team - how does this always work out? So a little love for my team below (and their locations)

Team Harmony:

Leaders - Luke & Lisa

Brian - New York

Sixto - New York

Melissa - New Jersey

Mike - Connecticut

Tim - Arizona

Sean - Canada

Nancy - Minnesota

Dave - Minnesota

Carly - California

Pat - South Carolina

Jennifer - Florida

Bonnie - Illinois

Ed - Illinois

Michelle - Iowa

D.C. - India

Snow - China

Sally - China

Tomorrow is a group photo, our mission in Discovery, Mr. Sun Spot, Personal Constellations, and a Honeywell Dinner/Celebration under the Saturn 5 rocket in the Davidson Center. Another busy day with our latest arrival back to Charger (anticipated at 10 PM).

And... we finally have a shower curtain (a present courtesy of our Space Camp director, not UAH or Charger Village)... only 3 days after we asked.

The "Right Stuff"

Day 2 of Space Camp gained me an entire 15 minutes of blissful sleep, as I was able to delay my wake-up until 6:15 AM; we didn't leave until 7:30 for the US Space and Rocket Center, the grounds of space camp. Huntsville was blessed today with rain - but luckily we were blessed with activities indoors almost the entire day.

Our first activity of the day was a visit to Hudson Alpha, a biotech research facility in Huntsville. One notable thing about Huntsville is that it has the second largest research park in the US - so there are many scientists, engineers, and other researchers who live and work here. Hudson Alpha was built to provide common building space to scientists researching biotech areas (mainly genetics/pharmaceuticals with human health), and businesses whose job is to promote (aka sell) these types of things.

One of the things that is difficult in the US is the agonizing length of time it takes to take a scientist's idea for a new drug or treatment and put it into action with real patients - would you believe that this averages 17 years? Hudson Alpha, because it has all of these people using the same space, thinks that they can lessen that time. They also employ educators to do student outreach - because the idea of biotech and STEM has to be encouraged to the youth in Alabama so there are educated young people to eventually fill these positions. We met with one of the educators today in a state-of-the-art laboratory (our group was lucky, the other groups had conference rooms) to conduct a DNA extraction experiment.

Now I have done DNA extraction before, it's actually one of my favorite labs to do in 7th grade - but this one provided a bit more inquiry (which I liked a lot!) - having each person choose the type of food (where the DNA comes from), the soap (lysis medium), other reagents (like contact solution, meat tenderizer, etc). Normally at school, I have my students use bananas. Today I extracted DNA from kiwi, using Dial body wash, contact lens solution, salt, water, and ethyl alcohol. I even have a small centrifuge container of my extracted DNA. Very fun! We also received great goodies to bring back to school for life science - right up my alley, and a very cool app for teaching cells - iCell. This is a free app for iPhone/iPod touch, iPad, and they are currently working on an app for Droid. There is also a web-based version. If you are interested in the app - search for iCell - it is the hudson alpha one! It is well worth exploring!

After our trip to research park and a hearty German lunch, we headed to the Educator Training Facility to hear a briefing about Expedition Living. Most of the things that I heard in this session I had previously learned through my tours at Johnson Space Center when I went in 2009 for 21st Century Explorer training. We were able to see space food, talk about showering, sleeping, and yes... going to the bathroom in space. All of the things that most people "really wanna know."

A huge highlight today was listening to Ed Buckbee, who had many roles with the space program. He worked at Marshall Space Flight Center (in Huntsville) working for rocket scientist Wernher von Braun. He was also a NASA public affairs officer, working with the original Mercury 7 "Right Stuff" astronauts, Gemini astronauts, and Apollo astronauts. He had AMAZING stories about what the program was like in its infancy - what the original astronauts were like, and the untold stories of different missions. Ed was also instrumental in starting the US Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville as well as Space Camp, for both kids and teachers. We each received an autographed copy of his book & DVD "The Real Space Cowboys" which is all about the original Mercury 7.

Then it was off to astronaut simulators. We were able to try out 2 different simulators today - the multi-axis trainer (which simulates how astronauts' bodies lose their sense of direction/balance in space because of limited gravity). For this activity, you were strapped in and swung around and around in different circles. We were also able to "moonwalk" using a bungee chair and walk across the moon with 1/6th gravity. I have video to prove that I did this - but for some reason blogger won't let me upload it tonight!

Before our mission, we took a brief tour of Rocket Park, one of the original exhibits in the Space and Rocket Center. We were able to see replicas of many different types of rockets, including those that took Mercury and Gemini to space. Off in the distance we could see the Saturn 5, the rocket that took the Apollo missions to the Moon.

Finally - time for our mission on the orbiter Atlantis! I headed off to Mission Control, while others on my team headed to the orbiter or the ISS (Space Station). As a team, we completed a launch, orbit, dock to the ISS, re-entry, and landing. As Capcom, my job was to listen to what was happening in Mission Control and relay that info to the Commander and Pilot, who would also relay info back to me. It was a lot of multi-tasking, but it was so much fun! And honestly, the 2 hour mission was over almost as quickly as it started. The ISS crew came in to Mission Control as we finished, and they remarked that we sounded like the real mission control. We have a new mission practice tomorrow so I am excited to find out what my new job is, although I will be sad to leave Mission Control as it is my favorite place.

Our last activity of the evening was Mission Patches. Our team is working on a design for a mission patch that we will share at our graduation ceremony on Monday night.

Tomorrow's agenda is filled with touring the US Space and Rocket Center, a visit to the gift shop (yea!), mission training, space writer and rocketry sessions, Dinosaur exhibit, and the Aviation Challenge concludes our day!

An image to leave you with, picture of the Saturn 5 Rocket at night as we boarded the bus back to Charger Village!

(PS... sadly I found that when I checked with Canon on my camera issue, it recommended to send it in for repair. :-( I used my iTouch camera today - not terrible, but I have a lot of new buddies with pictures. The beauty of Space Camp - everyone has a camera!)

Mission Control

So- the official start of Space Camp was today - and as you can tell,since this post is happening pretty late, they are using every second of our time. Which is good. It reminds me a lot of precamp - so those CLC buddies - you can relate. Plus, with the children space campers also here at the same time, I really feel like I'm in my element - camp is camp, although not nearly as much singing, and no ahhh game (as far I can tell).

Our day started with introductions and some speakers, one from Honeywell (they paid for the 200+ teachers to attend this program for free - tuition, room, board, "uniforms," trinkets, and transportation) which was great, and one from the Educator Resource Center at Marshall Space Center (Those in the DCSD/UD - this is where John Weis works (the moon rock guy). Then we broke up into our teams for team-building and such.

My team is named Harmony. Our group has 6 teams of 17-18 teachers, plus 2 counselors who

are also teachers who have gone through the program (seriously - my dream job!) One of the things that I think is so cool about this program is the diversity in our groups - my group has

members from all over the US (Connecticut, Minnesota, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, etc), plus international members from India, China, and Canada. We're working as a smaller group through the space activities (lesson plans) and also through our mission practice and simulated shuttle missions. One cool new team building activity I learned was using this book called "Zoom." The book is a wordless picture book taking a very zoomed in idea and zooming it out to an entirely different scene. The pages of the book had been separated and laminated and we had to put them into order without anyone else seeing our pictures. I'll be ordering this book.

After meeting with our team, we hea

ded out to the US Space and Rocket Center as we had a

little time before our space shuttle briefing. We were able to walk past the Space Camp habitats (where the campers live), and stand under the giant space shuttle. The orbiter is actually the Pathfinder - and it really was used by NASA. It was developed as a testing model - never meant to fly in space. The solid rocket booster that you can see in the picture is actually real as well. Later as we learned about the shuttle (which is made of the orbiter, main engine,

solid rocket boosters, and external fuel tank), it really was nice to have already viewed the model!

One thing to tell you is that we have been spoiled rotten here. My group's counselor Luke said, "We know teachers don't get much pampering, so you will have plenty of that while your here." So true. After our shuttle briefing we were whisked off to lunch where we were treated to salad bar, collard greens, fried okra, baked beans, mashed potatoes & gravy, fried chicken, and cornbread, plus homemade strawberry shortcake for dessert. This was just a few short hours after a breakfast of scrambled eggs, bacon, fried potatoes, biscuits and gravy, and fruit.

Delicious - but I definitely won't loose any weight here! If you come, you should just come for the food - you will eat like royalty!

After lunch we listened to a briefing on mission positions - as we will be completing 2 missions on the shuttle simulators while we are at space camp, just like the kids do. It was very cool finding out all of the different jobs that are available. We were able to select the jobs that we were most interested in - and later we would find out what job/role we each would get. Everyone gets a job!

Another highlight - our astronaut speaker. Dr. Don Thomas is a retired NASA astronaut who flew on 4 shuttle missions. He was so inspirational - he shared his story about wanting to be an astronaut from the age of 6, being an average student who worked really hard to get good grades. He completed his BA, MA, and PhD and then applied to be an astronaut. Naively, he thought being selected would be easy, but was

turned down 3 times (and they only accepted applications every 2-3 years). The third time he was turned down he had been one of the finalists that was interviewed in Houston. After this third rejection he considered changing his focus, but decided that he should move to Houston to become an engineer for NASA, and gain more

exposure towards becoming an astronaut. On

this fourth attempt, he was selected as an

astronaut. Don said, "Dream big, and never give up on your dreams, because sometimes they just take a long time to come true. I wanted to be an astronaut at the age of 6, and it wasn't until I turned 39 that this was able to come true." What a great message to share with kids. His other message, "Encourage your students because they will be the astronauts who will be walking on Mars someday." Following our speaker, and picture with Don we headed over to the US Space and Rocket Center to view some exhibits while we waited to start our mission practice.

Finally, the moment of truth. Eagerly we awaited our placements - and I was placed in Mission Control (1st choice) and the role of Capcom (also first choice). My job description: "Serves as primary communicator between orbiter and ground crews. Monitors the orbiter's position and course during the mission." Basically, I'm the link between Mission Control (at Kennedy before liftoff and at Houston after liftoff) and the astronauts in the orbiter. I have to say, it was a little nerve wracking to play this part at first (we are given scripts to follow and read from), but the set up is very authentic - the mission control group sits in a room that looks a lot like mission control; the orbiter group sits in a simulated shuttle, and the space station group is in a space station. We will have some astronauts doing EVAs on our mission - super cool. We got opportunities to practice reading our scripts today and tomorrow we get the chance to complete the simulation for real!

Finally, our final activities of the evening were Curiosity Mathematics - using a rover building simulation for measurement, data collection, and graphing. I worked with John, from London, England to build a model rover that we were confident would win, however, it didn't do as well as we imagined. Then we got to play with toys using the Toys in Space curriculum.

The only downfall to this day is that my brand new camera has stopped working for some reason - I did drop it, but not far, so I bummed. But the beauty of space camp is that every single person has a camera, so with my trusty mac, I can get lots of pictures! I am hoping that I can go online and troubleshoot from here and maybe tomorrow it will be operational again. Otherwise, I have my cell phone and my ipod, so both would also work.

Tomorrow is another jam-packed day, Hudson Alpha research facility, expedition living briefing, the history of early space flight briefing, astronaut simulations (the 1/6th gravity chair, gyroscope, etc), our mission on the simulator Atlantis, and Mission Patch Design. We'll be wearing our flight suits for part of the day.

Off to troubleshoot and bed - and off to breakfast at 7:30. :-)

The "Eagle" has landed

After some turbulent air travel today, I finally arrived in hot, humid Huntsville, AL around 3:50 PM. Today's day was not full of anything too strenuous or exciting. We did have time to get some free NASA space camp goodies - along with our FLIGHT SUITS! Yes, I am saying that I get to wear a flight suit and keep it forever. :-) We even get name tags - mine says "Specialist Weber."

200 teachers from around the world were selected to be Honeywell Educators and attend Space Camp for Educators for FREE! If you want to see where everyone is from - check out this map. Note: You may want to increase the size to see places in more detail. But funny enough, my suite mate teaches in Freeport, IL. Today I met people who teach in Colorado, Illinois, Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, England, Mexico, China, India, and countless other places! It's also been funny because tonight Huntsville has been having some fairly good sized thunderstorms and some were just fascinated by the rain - just looks like rain in Iowa to me! (Best thing about the suite - Air Conditioning; Worst Thing - No Shower Curtain!)

Another freebie is a children's book - how perfect as I am teaching children's literature immediately upon my return to Dubuque. "Max Goes to the Moon: A Science Adventure with Max the Dog" is a wonderful story filled with factual information about the moon, Apollo missions, etc. Also, great pictures. It also was published by Big Kid Science which I will be checking out more!

Tomorrow we leave for the US Space and Rocket Center for our first day of training, bright and early at 7 AM. As I flew into Huntsville today I noticed a tall structure that looked a lot like a rocket. We drove past the center today and I realized that yes, I had seen this from the air. I am very eager to explore and learn more, even if it means that I have to be up earlier than I have been all summer.

A boxed lunch dinner, some socializing with other middle school teachers (equally nerdy as myself), and time to watch the movie, "In the Shadow of the Moon." This documentary shared the stories of the men who were involved in the Apollo program and have seen the moon as no other living person on Earth has seen it. Although it probably wouldn't be one that middle schoolers would enjoy (at least not the whole thing at once), I thought it was amazing to watch and hear the stories of these astronauts. Catch the movie trailer below - and it's available for purchase.

Tomorrow is a big day - 7:00-8:30 PM ish. But we do have an astronaut speaker! Stay tuned.

T-minus 16 hours (or thereabouts)

Until blast off...

I am off tomorrow (at 10:05 AM to be exact) to Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. I will be attending an Educator's Space Camp - and I am beyond excited. (And, by the way, any middle school science or math teacher can apply to be a Honeywell Educator and attend space camp for free - http://www.spacecamp.com/educators/honeywell/)

That is exactly how I was selected to participate. I applied online, forgot about applying, and was over the moon (literally) when I found out I was selected.

My love of science, particularly space science all stems from my work with Girl Scouts. As a long time camper (counselor and assistant camp director), we had the good fortune of receiving a grant to partner with NASA in 2001. With our awesome trainers that came to Dubuque, I really developed my love of all things space. Another opportunity came about in 2009 and we worked with another group on another grant bring the 21st Century Explorer program into the hands of informal education. In 2009, my science/Girl Scout buddies Debby Stork, Marci Seavey, and I traveled to Johnson Space Center in Houston, TX to learn about the program, assist the educators in making changes to the curriculum, and tour a ton of really cool places (the neutral buoyancy lab, the food lab, robotics labs, MISSION CONTROL, and more). If you are a nerd like me, check out the pictures from that trip in the slide show below.

Funny enough, I've never been able to teach space science to my classes... I've always been in the grade above where it's in their curriculum. However, so much of what I've learned about inquiry has come from NASA trainings, that it's readily infused in all that I do!

So, my hope (dependent on internet access at Charger Village - crossing fingers), is to blog daily about my adventures in Huntsville, so I can keep my following (family and friends) up to date on what I'm experiencing! Regardless, I will be taking pictures like crazy and updating entries to post when I have access.

Much to do until I blast off - like packing, laundry, and other assorted tidbits. Michelle

Humble Beginnings

So... who am I?

I'm a middle school science and social studies teacher [4 classes of science (life science) and one of social studies (world history).]

I teach 7th graders!

I am a self-proclaimed techie and nerd.

I love to learn.

I'm teaching two classes as an adjunct professor, Children's Lit and Technology in Education.

And my biggest adventure for the summer of 2011, SPACE CAMP! Yes, that's right, I am 13 and I will be traveling in less than a week to Huntsville, AL to learn about being an astronaut and how to inspire middle schoolers in the area of STEM.

So the purpose of this blog... to share my thoughts, ideas, and adventures in the areas of education and technology. Stay tuned!