Local Students Participate in NASA Student Symposium in Houston, Texas!

Toluca Lake Students Visit NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston!

by - Alessandra Rugamas, Britney Arana, & Rashel Alvarez

Our school is a part of the NASA Explorer School (NES) program. As a NES, we get to do some cool lessons and activities from NASA. Our teacher, Mr. Hagen-Smith, got our school into this program after taking a class called “Teachers Touch the Sky” last summer. One of our favorite lessons was designing a “Lunar Plant Chamber.” Students designed a prototype to grow plants to support a research colony on the moon. Two of our students, Ali Freas and Caitline Molina, did such a good job on their design that they were selected to participate in the National Student Science Symposium in Houston, Texas. They were the only elementary students from California to earn this honor. “I am very proud of their creativity and hard work,” said Mr. Hagen-Smith.

During their trip to the Science Symposium, the students presented a power point of their prototype to NASA scientists and engineers. The people at NASA were very impressed with the design. They liked how the students created innovative solutions like a pedaling an exercise bike to generate electricity, and modified their original design after learning that it doesn’t rain on the Moon. They also like that the students made connections to social studies, language arts, and related careers in science. When asked about their next steps, Freas responded, “… to colonize the moon!” The people at NASA said they were looking forward to seeing kids like Ali and Caitline visit Mars in the future.

During their trip, the students had many amazing experiences. They met many astronauts, participated in a live web career panel interview, met students from around the country, visited the Mission Control Center, constructed models of pods that could land on the moon, ate pecan pie, and stayed at a Hilton Hotel. They visited the center where astronauts are trained under water, walked along a life-size rocket, saw a new lunar vehicle controlled by an ipad, got stuck to   a wall with Velcro, and saw how scientists are designing a habitat for deep space exploration. Caitline said, “Going to NASA was a once-in-a-lifetime experience…. I really liked the career panel because I want to work for NASA someday.”

We are very proud that our students were selected for this very important honor. They were two of only a dozen elementary students to be selected from the entire country! “This trip inspired me to want to study, work hard, and go to college to be a scientist or engineer someday,” said Ali. “I feel like I can accomplish all of my goals,”said Caitline. “We believe that each of our students can reach the stars if they put their minds to it and do the work necessary along the way,” said Mr. Hagen-Smith. Way to go Ali & Caitline!