Schools
Students Visit NASA Despite Government Shutdown Talks
In honor of the 50th anniversary of cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's orbit around earth on April 12, 1961, the third and fourth graders traveled down to Mountain View.
Though NASA officials were on Friday, students from Redwood Shores and Sandpiper Elementary School students still were able to participate in the golden anniversary celebration of first human space flight at NASA Ames.
The unique learning opportunity commemorated cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin's orbit around Earth on April 12, 1961. Students spent four hours observing 50 exhibits about aerodynamics, aquaponics, astrobiology, cryogenics, fluorescent spectroscopy and other topics that most elementary school text books will never discuss. They spent time in an inflatable planetarium and were able to search for life on other planets.
Space and science field trips and talks in Redwood Shores. Organizer Andrew Young said that the program was perfect for stimulating interest in some of the young future astronauts.
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“Maybe some of these third and fourth graders will become the engineers to design the replacement of the space shuttle or the astronauts on future missions into space," Young said.
Many students also earned posters of STS 133 the 133rd space shuttle flight and the final flight of Discovery. Now that Discovery is retired from service, someday those posters may become a collectors' item.
