 Hi, this is Jill Bates. Thank you for joining me for today's Wednesday webinar. We will be joining Tammy Coofall, fifth and sixth grade reading, math, and spelling teacher, and Lisa Cook, seventh through twelfth grade math teacher at Orchard Public School. Well, we're really excited to learn about your adventures in space, and I know that space is an acronym that stands for Spaceport Area Conference for Educators. How did you guys find out about that? I found out about it through the math and science conference last year. The Nebraska Space Ambassadors had a table set up, and they were talking about going to space, and so I was very interested. And you shared your news with Lisa, is that right? Actually, no. Heidi Rithmiller from the ESU sent out a mass email, I'm assuming, and to all of the STEM teachers, and I received that email and read through it and thought it sounded interesting. I don't know if I really gave it much of a thought, but thought it might be fun to just try to apply for it. So I did. So what was the application process like? Well, it was a little different for me than for Tammy because I actually, through Heidi, there was a travel grant, and also the registration paid for. So the registration was paid for, and then it was a $400 travel grant. So the application process was through, it was from NASA, and you had to answer a bunch of questions, and how are you going to use this material once you go back to your classroom, and what do you teach, and several different things like that. So I think it was a little different for me than it was for Tammy. Mine is a little bit more simplified. I had to go on to an EventBright website and do the application process there. And I had applied early because they had released it, and so then I was able to take part in the ATX for the astronaut training, and then the lunar certification as well for that. But then once I got there, two people who had received the same grant that Lisa did, had not used the $400 stipend, and so there was a nice $400. I don't think I knew that. And then my district ended up paying for me. The registration? Yes, for the registration. I went to Mr. Martin, and I said, hey, I've received Perkins grants for these conferences. We've never had to pay for me for to go for a conference. I really think this is important. So was there a registration or application deadline? There was. For me there was. Yeah, I can't remember what it was. I like maybe I want to say a week or two after I got the email. There was... Winter, spring. No, it was in the spring. I was like March-ish. And then how soon after that did you find out that you'd been exempted? And I got an email that said like, I think there were 17 of us in Nebraska. That received the, I guess, a grant from UNO. It was through UNO. Received the registration and then the $400 stipend. That was going to be my next question. How many other Nebraska educators were there with the two of you? More than that. 30 plus. Yeah. From Nebraska? From Nebraska. Every time we ran into people, they kept saying, another Nebraska. And if you look, we should have brought one of our t-shirts, but on the back, one of the sponsors was the UNO Space Ambassadors, was one of the sponsors of this particular conference. So there was a strong Nebraska connection there. So there were teachers from other states also? All over. In Puerto Rico. And how many teachers would you estimate were there? Two. I think they had about 200, 250. So it was pretty big. So what was a typical day like for you when you were good into space? While they started out with, you know, a little beverage and fruit or muffins. And then we went in and there was this speaker. More than one usually keynote speaker. That's true. Astronauts were there. The director at the Kennedy Space Center was another presenter. The guy, Hakeem, I can't pronounce his last name. He was an astrophysicist at a Florida Institute of Technology. He was one day. So you started off with a keynote or a speaker in the morning. And then I'm guessing that the 200 of you split off into different sessions. Huge amount of sessions for us to break out into. All geared from elementary and middle school and high school as well as multi-curricular. So, you know, if a person didn't teach math or science, there were different sessions for them to participate as well in incorporating space into the college. And this was for teachers K through 12? Yes. Yes, I would say any grade level would have benefited hugely from going. And I find it really interesting that you didn't, they didn't have to be a math or a science teacher. Just an interest in space. Well, and also they wanted like museum educators. I know that in the eighth grade here in our Unified District, we take a trip to the SAC Museum every year, a field trip. And we always have a museum educator there that does a couple activities with us. And I think they also wanted those types of educators to come as well. So there may have been some like that. They had a librarian. I know I was in class with a librarian. So she was going to incorporate it into her Stam and Maker space there at the library. Quite a variety. Yeah. So are there any of the sessions that really stand out in your mind? Probably my favorite just because I can relate was a woman named Ryan Prouty who's from Wyoming. And she went to the University of Wyoming. She's from Casper and graduated with a math degree. Her major was math and she was getting her hair cut one day and was reading an article about NASA and just reading about the latest trip to the space station. And she's like, I think I could do that. So she applied and now she's in charge of all of their scheduling. Yeah, pretty amazing story. She's younger than I am, which is not super young. But anyway, she's in charge of all of the scheduling of all of the launches that go to the space station and she's in charge of all of the packaging. And then with food and, you know, whatever they take up there. And then also what they're going to do with all of that material once it gets up to the space station. And she's in her 40s and she's in charge of like 300 workers that are that do that. She was just really inspiring. Everybody who was there was really inspiring for educators. That was their number one priority was making sure that we felt appreciated. And didn't you feel like that? Oh, constant praise and kudos to our resources. And here's what you what can we do to help make your job easier. But she was probably my favorite just because I think I related to her. And she was real heavy on problem solving. The International Space Station has the panels. They can fold up like an accordion. And once they did that and then when they pulled them apart, one of them broke. And so they had to problem solve here on the ground how to fix that. And it was pretty amazing that they ended up using a three-ring binder that they cut the metal off of and taped it to the panel. And it's been there for 10 years. So problem solving was huge. And that's, of course, what we try to do in our classrooms. And so she just reaffirmed that for me personally. It was great. How about you, Tammy, any highlights for you? Mine was a seamstress because I found out how much of the space shuttle is made from fabric. Including that tiles are now baked fabric and applied onto the shuttle. So no longer they're using ceramic. It just keeps the weight of the entire thing so much lighter. And again, I think it was kind of a fluke how she applied. You know, she was looking for a job as a seamstress. And, you know, oh, just as a fluke, you know, they're looking for seamstresses for NASA. And she calls up her mom. And at first she didn't realize even that she was applying to NASA. She thought it was just a local company. And she kept driving. And she said, mom, I'm at NASA. And, you know, and now she tells people, you know, her mom breaks about her working at NASA. And I'm like, the NASA, but she just soaps, you know. Those are just fascinating stories. So did they have hands-on kinds of sessions that you were involved with, too? Probably you did that more than I did. Yes. About everything for me was hands-on. Including, well, seamstress, you know, we were told how to incorporate quilting, you know, or make a nine-patch quilt into our classrooms, you know, the math that uses and things like that, the creativity. Another one was making the camera obscura using the big box like they used in the movie Wonder. And, you know, the pinhole camera. And again, how can we incorporate that into our classroom, as well as the flying hoopsters that we did today? Well, and just your lunar certification and your, what was your other one that you did? Lunar and meteorite certification. Yeah, tell me about that. I saw pictures of that. Well, we had to take a class and get certified. I'll be able to have lunar rocks and meteorites shipped to the school. And we'll have them for two weeks. They are pretty cluck and danger about everything. They're wrapped in brown paper, signed off at every level. And then as soon as I receive them, they cannot leave my site. At night they must be turned into an evidence locker. We had to take a test agreeing to, you know, keep this nice and safe. And then again, how would we present these? And one of them was using film canister or a pill box. And making the volcano with baking soda and the ammonia, or baking soda and vinegar. And then having it overflow, taking a pencil, marking off where that would go, putting a first layer of modeling clay on there. Then repeating the experiment, marking off again where the next flow landed. So talking about how volcanoes are formed, how the craters are formed on the moon, as well as on Mars, things like that. So I'm just really amazed at the wide variety of sessions that you had. One that I'm actually going to work on a project right now is I went to a workshop that was all about food and what they eat in the International Space Station. And, you know, we always think of what's the first food that everybody thinks of that people eat. Well, they think of the ice cream because that's what you can buy. Well, actually, they don't. You can't have any crumbs on the space station at all. And that's all freeze dried ice cream. So that's really fake astronaut food. Sorry to burst everyone's bubble out there. But what they do is they go to the local grocery store and they buy food. And that's what goes up to the International Space Station. They just have to package it differently because you can't have any dyes up there because it will separate. You can't have anything with crumbs. So, you know, there are some restrictions, but it's basically the food that you and I eat. And about six months before they go up, they have like a food tasting and they pick out their favorite foods and what they want shipped up there. And so the project that I'm going to do, the gentleman gave us a list of all the foods that they can have in the caloric intake. And astronauts are required to exercise at least two hours a day while they're on the space station due to the microgravity. They have to combat that. So they have to do at least two hours of exercise. So we're going to figure out the body mass. We're going to figure out the caloric intake and plan some menus for people in space and obviously a huge math connection there. So I'm really excited to do that. I haven't quite had time to get that all, that lesson all planned yet. They gave us some good materials, but that's something I'm working on for my junior high kids because we just did a big problem-solving unit. So that's going to kind of be our culmination where we really get to it. I'm going to show them some videos of people on the space station. I have a cool app on my phone that actually does a 360 inside all the different rooms of the space station. So I think the kids will really enjoy that. Yeah, and something pretty new that they're doing now that I think, I don't know if you were in that workshop with me or not, but they're starting to grow fresh vegetables on the space station now. They just, within the last year or so, and they're doing all sorts of experiments and they're actually wanting data from schools all over the nation. We're thinking about somebody doing that here. We are doing this here. You are. Good for you. We're doing the simplified version. We're doing this tomato sphere. So it's not quite as elaborate as what you were going to be talking about. And they're going to be sending us in the spring tomato seeds that were germinated in space and then a packet that was germinated here on earth. We don't know which is which and so we'll be growing them and then we track the results of their growth and the various data. And once we're done, we send that in and then they will tell us via code which one was germinated in space and which one was germinated here on earth. And as you're talking, I can just think of lots of connections to other curricular areas. I'm thinking family consumer science and actually international relations is one of the hugest benefits of the international space station. So you think of speech, you think of social studies, the social sciences, you think of just relating with people and things like that. What would you like to tell other teachers about your experience to encourage them to apply and attend next summer? What would you tell them? Do it. I'm hoping to go back. You can go back to the other ones? Yes, you can continue to go back. So I'm trying to figure out my justification for going again. I would also, we were treated great. They, again, I can't convey how much they value what we do. Every speaker that spoke, every workshop we went to, they all were like, what can we tell you as teachers that will help you? What you do is so valuable. And not that we don't hear that a lot, but just as a corporate group, they communicated that to us. Every single person who spoke was so affirming of what we do and so grateful. And it was just nice to hear that for three days. It really was. Thank you for joining this Wednesday webinar. Please feel free to contact me or Tammy or Lisa if you'd like to learn more about the Spaceport Area Conference for Educators.