January 11, 2012
John Oldham, exhibits specialist from the NASA Glenn Research Center comes to speak to our second and third grade classes
John Oldham, Exhibits Specialist, NASA Glenn Research Center
The third graders are studying space and have all started their individual research projects. For their project, each child is given a different topic like a planet, the moon, the sun, or NASA. They will research their topic and make a PowerPoint presentation that will be presented to the students and parents at the student led conferences in March. Mrs. Parrish says third grader Neev Lamba who has NASA as his research project was fascinated with everything Mr. Oldham had to say. She adds “Mr. Oldham was a huge reference for the children’s personal research projects. They were thoroughly engaged and John was personable and on their level.”
Mr. Oldham gave every child an opportunity to ask him a question and was able to answer all of them. Both the teachers and children were able to learn from Mr. Oldham. Mrs. Lane says “we all learned that a space shuttle is the size of ten football fields, almost as tall as the terminal tower and that there is gold in the center of the sun.” Mr. Oldham brought in a space suit and a moon rock and let each child take a turn holding it. Mark Irelan wore the suit and the children were all able to try on the training helmet. A special thank you goes out to Mr. Oldham as well as Mark Irelan for making this very special and educational experience happen.
Third grader Kaili Klimas holding a moon rock.
Third grader, Arturo Orso-Giaconne wearing the training helmet.
Mark Irelan wearing the space suit.