SPACE CAMP
Moriarty educator visits NASA facility
Science teacher from Moriarty will share her experience at NASA with her students.
A childhood dream came true this summer for a Moriarty Middle School science teacher who went to NASA’s Space Camp this summer at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala.
Jodie Guillen, who teaches science to sixth- and seventhgraders, was inspired to become a teacher when her sixth-grade teacher, Cathy Albers, told her about Christa McAuliffe, the teacher who died in the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in 1986.
“It was really meaningful to me,” Guillen said. “I left the classroom that day knowing I wanted to be a teacher.”
On this the 30th anniversary year of that tragedy, Guillen said she is coming back to her classroom even more inspired now that she has had the experience of what it is like to walk on the moon and touched the rocket engines that have propelled astronauts into space.
In her application for Space Camp, Guillen emphasized how she strives to get students in the rural school excited about science so they can aspire to be scientists and engineers.
She told how she started an after-school program focused on careers in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
She detailed how she wrote grants to bring in classroom equipment, such as a 3D printer and supplies, as well as field trips.
But in her application she wrote mostly about her students.
“The reality my kiddos face every single day is harsh, which is why I work so hard to give them the education they deserve,” she wrote.
The fact that she would be bringing what she learned back to students in a rural school got her into Space Camp. She was among more than 200 teachers from 25 countries and 36 states and territories who attended the Honeywell-sponsored Space Camp in Huntsville from June 8-21.
The teachers participated in 45 hours of classroom, laboratory and training focused on science and space exploration.
Guillen said she and the other teams stayed in dorms at the University of Alabama. They worked in teams on different problems, design challenges and simulations of working in space.
A self-confessed science nerd, Guillen said it was great to be surrounded by other teachers and rocket scientists who shared her enthusiasm for all things technological. She said she made some great friends in that intense week.
“We’re bonded for life,” she said of her Space Camp teacher colleagues.
Via Skype, Guillen said, she plans to work on projects with other Space Camp teachers in places such as Australia. Space Camp gave her plenty of ideas for handson activities for her students to learn about science and revealed to her even more resources for make learning more meaningful to her students, she said.
During Space Camp, Guillen was able to meet Homer Hadley Hickam Jr., the author of “Rocket Boys,” which was the basis for the movie “October Sky,” which told the true story of West Virginia youths whose love of model rocketry led them to working in the space program.
“You never know where your life is gong to go,” she said. “I want my students to believe they can do anything they want to. I want them to see past what’s right here right now and broaden their mind set to show them what all is possible.”
One of Guillen’s goals will be to seek ways her students can go to places such as the Space and Rocket Center so they can also touch the technology and be inspired by the people behind the rocket engines, satellites and spacesuits.