EDUCATION

Nineteen students had the opportunity to ask questions. Many queries were scientific, such as, “How many times do you go around Earth in a year?” Others were more practical, including, “How do you take a shower in space?” and, “How do you scratch your nose in a spacesuit?”

The first was answered with a math problem: 16 times a day (so 5,840 a year).

The others: Their hygiene is a sort of modified sponge bath; and nose-scratching is harder than you’d think. It requires using the side of their helmets as an improvised scratching post.

Adelynn Mallory, 10, a fourth-grader, asked AuñonChancellor what surprised her most about spacewalks, or time outside the station.

Her response: You can

move big pieces of equipment easily because something that weighs 300 pounds is weightless in space.

“I couldn’t find the answer in a book, so I had to ask them,” Mallory said.

Diane Warner, site director for Afterschool Programs of Lancaster at Tallmadge, applied to the group that made Wednesday’s event possible: ARISS, or Amateur Radio on the International Space Station.

Warner also is the Lancaster & Fairfield County Amateur Radio Club’s activities manager. The club donated equipment for students to use, and operated it during the conversation with the astronaut.

The event required months of preparation, including installing two antennae on the school roof and running coaxial cables to connect all the technology.

A grant from the Fairfield County Foundation helped cover some expenses, Warner said.

The special day was the culmination of months of space-themed curriculum. Preparation included researching NASA and ham radio and studying Ohio’s rich history of space exploration. Some students completed a comparativewriting assignment after sampling space ice cream, which is freeze-dried.

Fourth- and fifthgraders will visit the high school planetarium, and after-school students will construct robots.

The goal is to pique students’ interest in science, technology, engineering, arts and math, or STEAM, yearround, said Gordon Scannell, an ARISS volunteer.

“When the kids realize it isn’t a person standing in the other room, and they’re actually talking to someone in space, it’s a truly magical experience,” Scannell said.