Students at St. Catherine Laboure School in Wheaton stepped into the future of education by holding a videoconference with a NASA scientist last week.
Twenty-five seventh-graders filed into the school's new media room May 5 for a lesson on mapping the surface of the moon from NASA scientist Marci Delaney, team leader for the Digital Learning Network, who spoke with them from the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt.
They also were treated to an overview of NASA's current and future space programs and a taste of videoconference technology.
When the live feed from Goddard began, the students stopped talking and looked to the front of the room, where Delaney appeared on a 52-inch screen. There was a moment of hesitation while the students decided whether they were watching a program or taking part in one.
But Delaney cleared that up right away, explaining she could see and hear the students as well as they could see and hear her. She encouraged them to relax and enjoy the lesson.
Throughout the 50-minute program, Delaney had the students act as light rays, the moon surface and satellites while she explained how NASA scientists create a topographic map of the moon. She asked questions, encouraging the students to share what they knew or wanted to know about the work NASA does.
"NASA mostly sends out satellites. Robotic missions are how NASA gets most of its information," Delaney said.
With the help of Disney PIXAR robot character Wall.E, Delaney shared NASA's plans for a return mission to the moon and explained why a greater understanding of lunar topography is necessary for a successful mission.
Julio Fuentez, 12, of Silver Spring, acting as a satellite, sent light rays during the students' mapping exercise. Julio rolled a ball, which mimicked the light ray, to eight students, each representing a point on the moon, while Henry Blanco, 12, of Gaithersburg, timed the process of rolling the ball from the satellite to the moon's surface and back.
Since the students were positioned differently, according to Delaney's directions, the resulting times differed. The students then made graphs of the times, which gave them an idea of how scientists create maps.
After students finished their graphs, showing hills and valleys on the moon's surface, Delaney and Wall.E showed a three-dimensional animation of moon mapping — incredibly high tech and light years beyond the ball-rolling method.
"I didn't know that much about the surface of the moon — that it has large rocks and small rocks and they need to find a safe place to land," Carla Cornejo, 12, of Wheaton, said.
Alicia Perry, 13, of Silver Spring, dreams of someday becoming an astronaut or marine biologist.
"This is valuable if you want to be a person who makes maps or if you want to become an astronaut," she said.
The students had come prepared with a number of questions for Delaney, many of which she answered during the presentation. Julio acted as the class spokesperson during the question time.
"It was fun actually talking to someone from NASA and seeing what they do. The Wall.E part was really cool," Julio said.
As a student, teacher Chrissy Chiddo was an intern at NASA and knew about the agency's Digital Learning Network. Now the school's art teacher and media lab director, she arranged the program between her students and the space center as an inaugural event for St. Catherine's recently completed media room.
"This is a new lab and we are hoping to give [the students] a new experience," she said.
After the screen faded and the lesson was over, students talked about the experience.
Lydie Koffi, 12, of Silver Spring, could envision a moon mission so successful people would eventually live and work there.
"It would be a long commute, but it would be cool to go to the moon for a little while," Lydie said.
Whitney Geohagan, 12, of Silver Spring, took away a completely different lesson from the teleconference.
"I can see the future for this learning — instead of everyday teachers, there will be people talking to you [on the screen]," Whitney said.
Her prediction could come true if teleconferencing spreads in education as it has in business.
Jason Ray, chairman of the school's technology committee, which helped set up the media room, said he uses telecommunication several times a day in his work at an international nonprofit organization.
"This was also an education in the use of new tools," he said.
