Wednesday, February 19, 2003
Teens to share research with community
NEWS-JOURNAL WIRE REPORT
NEW SMYRNA BEACH — When the shuttle Columbia broke apart in the sky, a group of teenagers at New Smyrna Beach Middle School were devastated.
The tragedy could mean an end to research in space, a topic 10 pupils had become passionate about while studying space in their advanced aviation class.
“There are only three shuttles left and they may not let them go up again to continue research,” said Robert Gordon, a 14-year-old eighth-grader from Edgewater. “The research is valuable and the shuttle problem could end funding.”
The teens know all about the medical and agricultural research going on because they´ve spent weeks of study. But the pupils discovered most adults in Southeast Volusia – who live about 60 miles from Kennedy Space Center – have no idea what goes on in space.
In January, the class surveyed 104 adults at area libraries, Rotary and Kiwanis club meetings and neighborhood gatherings and found that 80 percent didn´t know basic facts about space exploration.
Those surveyed couldn´t identify types of research being conducted at the International Space Station, such as tests on cancer, AIDS and osteoporosis, said Milan Skrtic, a retired aerospace engineer who volunteers with the class each week.
And, the adults couldn´t name the 26 countries involved in the station and didn´t know it can be seen in the night sky, Skrtic said.
After calculating the results, the pupils decided to teach the community more about space through a seminar at 9 a.m. April 28 in the middle school´s media center. During a presentation, pupils will discuss various space topics and describe the makeup of the International Space Station using a model the class built last year that hangs from the media center ceiling.
It´s amazing how many of the adults had been to the Kennedy Space Center but didn´t know any of the answers,” Gordon said.
The pupils have put together a six-page report on their survey findings and entered it into a national contest through the Columbus Foundation in Washington, D.C. If they win, the team could receive a grant and a trip to the Columbus Academy at Walt Disney World.
The aviation class has come a long way in its six-year existence, said Dana Thompson, resource teacher overseeing the class. It started as a voluntary after-school course taught once a week by retired pilot David Cummock. This year, it expanded into a full-time elective course, led by a host of professional aviators and aeronautics experts, including Cummock and Skrtic.
“Space is a natural evolution of aviation,” Cummock said before leading class Tuesday morning.
Thompson has received several grants to fund the class, including $1,000 from Volusia County Schools Education Foundation´s Futures Inc., which supports innovative programs that may not be covered in tight school budgets. Thompson plans to use the money to expand the second annual aviation day May 2 with flyovers and flight simulation on the school grounds.
She also bought books for the pupils using a $250 grant from the Aerospace Education Foundation in Arlington, Va., and $300 from a newly formed Rick Grannis Foundation. Grannis was a pilot who died in a December crash while flying for a New Smyrna Beach airplane company in Miami.
The aviation program now is in its second semester, with two classes being taught. The beginning class, called Wright Flight, goes over the history of aviation and space exploration.
Eighth-grader Derric Simpson said he likes the flight course so much he rarely procrastinates when doing homework assignments.
“I´ve wanted to be a pilot since I was 10 or 11,” the Edgewater 13-year-old said.
At the end of last semester, 10 highly interested teens talked Thompson into running the advanced aviation class where they work on bigger projects, such as the space survey.
Ross Granger, 14, is one of those pupils. In the advanced class, he is designing a futuristic spacecraft. Outside of class, he has been taking flying lessons and hopes to get his pilot´s license by the time he is 16.
“I take this class instead of (physical education) even though I like athletics,” he said. “I´m just more interested in this.”
Gordon and four classmates will spend the next two months getting ready for the space seminar. His teammates are Chris O´Brien, 14; Christopher Schwarz, 13; and Timothy Loomis, 13, all from Edgewater.
After the seminar, O´Brien said the pupils will hand out another survey that asks the same questions as before – and then some.
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