Area Teachers Attend NASA Conference

Pam Whiffen, National Space Biomedical Research Institute representative, addresses teachers from Angelina and Nacogdoches counties at the 10th annual International Space Station Educators Conference. The teachers are participating in Stephen F. Austin State University’s Angelina Aerospace Science for Educators Initiative.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Shirley Luna – February 27, 2004

Teachers from Nacogdoches and Angelina counties recently joined more than 700 fellow educators from the United States, Canada, Europe and Japan at a NASA conference to learn how to use the International Space Station to inspire students' interest in science and mathematics. The local teachers are participating in Stephen F. Austin State University’s Angelina Aerospace Science for Educators Initiative.

Teachers attending the 10^th annual International Space Station Educators Conference at Johnson Space Center and Space Center Houston included Linda Richardson and Lynn Wagner, Christ Episcopal School; Shonda Kelsey and Happy Modisette, Central Independent School District; Anne Lumbley, Diboll Independent School District; Mike Armand, Carolyn Cheavens, Debora Miller, Debbie Pope and Kelley Walker, Hudson Independent School District; Angela Duncan and Bambi Spurgeon, Huntington Independent School District; Marilyn Arnold, Kristie Jones, Valerie Meyers, and Addie Thomas, Lufkin Independent School District; and Kathy Caton from Zavalla Independent School District.

Participants toured astronaut training facilities and attended hands-on, interactive sessions designed to introduce classroom lessons teaching rocket building and launching, spacesuit construction, assembly of a Space Station model, astronaut food preparation, growing plants in space, and modeling effects of long-duration space flight.

The teachers also met astronauts who have traveled on the International Space Station or the Space Shuttle, as well as the current educator astronaut, Barbara Morgan.

A highlight of the conference was a live conversation with Space Station Expedition 8 commander and NASA station science officer Michael Foale and Russian flight engineer Alexander Kaleri. The crew has been aboard the station since October.

The Angelina Aerospace Science for Educators Initiative is funded by a grant received by the SFA Science and Mathematics Education Center from the Texas Teacher Quality Grant program. It involves member school districts representing the Angelina Education Committee of the Business of Education Partnership (Central, Diboll, Hudson, Huntington, Lufkin, and Zavalla schools) and Christ Episcopal School of Nacogdoches.

Representing SFA at the conference were Dr. Josephine Taylor, associate professor of biology, and Drs. Alan Sowards, assistant professor of elementary education, and Stephen Wagner, assistant professor of biology, project directors.

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