"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!