Focus on TUSD - February 2007

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Utterback Students Simulate Space Mission
Astronauts spend years training for their missions. Utterback Magnet Middle School students needed only a 10-minute briefing before they launched into space.

In a simulated setting on Friday, Feb. 9, 32 seventh-graders were divided into two groups with one crew working in a space shuttle and the other group manning Mission Control at Pima Air and Space Museum's Challenger Center. Part way through the mission, the two groups switched spots so that all of them worked on both the Mission Control and space shuttle assignments.

While the first group worked at the Challenger Center, a second group of students toured the extensive museum grounds. After that, the two groups of students switched locations, giving every student a chance to experience the space trip and mission control simulations, as well as the museum tour.

The space crew's adventure took off amid rocket noise and vibrations in a small, darkened room followed by a quick trip through a portal leading to the work area. Each worker had an assigned station around the circular room. High on the wall, monitors displayed the project progress, live crew shots and the view from the space station.

As the crew hurtled through space at 17,500 miles an hour, 250 miles from Earth, the students had little time to enjoy the scenery as they took on duties in communications, data, navigation, probe, medical, remote, life support and isolation. Their mission was gathering information about the moon. The Challenger Station also has other missions available, such as a trip to Mars.

Alexa Martinez donned a headset to begin transmitting messages from space to Mission Control. "I'm nervous," she said. "I don't want to mess up." But as she followed instructions on plastic-covered sheets, she began to relax.

"Mission Control, this is the space station," she calmly said into her mouthpiece. "Do you copy? Over."

Nearby, Justin Smith and Della Alvarez, charged with monitoring the health of the crew, took blood pressure and heart rates. Smith reported no health emergencies and said, "We feel like we're helping out and like we're really on the shuttle. I'd like to go into space."
Next door, the Mission Control crew took up positions behind monitors arranged in three rows facing four large wall screens displaying live shots of the space crew, a view from the space station and a countdown of the 90-minute mission.

Clare Allen-Henderson, who handled Communications, sent messages through Martinez to the space crew, asking them to check filter and oxygen readings and perform other functions. "It's fun to learn all this," she said. "When I see this on TV, I'll know what's going on. From doing this, I think it would be hard to be an astronaut."

She admitted that the directions were sometimes difficult to follow and the headset hurt a little.

Andrea Smith, one of the three teachers supervising the tour, said students learned how to work on teams, perform different jobs, follow directions, and apply social studies skills. In the process, they also picked up information about flight history and health monitoring.

In her fifth year of teaching science, Smith said this was the only field trip she'd taken with her students.

Outfitted in a blue jumpsuit, Gayle Gentile, the Challenger Center's Mission Control director, said, "The kids are awesome. They're doing well. They're all on top of their tasks." John Moffit and Denny Mart, both with the center, were the flight directors for the space crew.

Utterback teachers Warren Essig and Jennifer Bliss, along with the school's counselor, Jody Carlon, joined the group. Eric Moll, a college coach with the GEAR-UP program, was part of the trip, too.

The GEAR-UP initiative, which stands for Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs, paid for the field trip's bus transportation. This program targets entire classes of students as they start seventh grade and follows them through graduation. Tutoring, career fairs, college visits, job shadowing and parent workshops focus on increasing the number of students from low-income families who stay in school, graduate and are prepared for college. GEAR-UP at Utterback is linked with the University of Arizona.

A $3,600 scholarship from the Pima Air Museum covered eight Challenger Space Center missions for Utterback seventh-graders. Students also went on Jan. 16 and will go again on Feb. 26 and 27 and March 1.

The Challenger program at Pima, opened in 1999, is one of two in Arizona established after the 1986 NASA shuttle explosion killed seven astronauts, including Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher to go into space.

-- By Sharon Dunham
Communications & Media Relations

TUSD - Proud Supporter of Small Classes

All photos in the February issue by Jes Ruvalcaba of Communications & Media Relations.

The deadline to submit material for the March Focus is Friday, March 9. The Focus will be published Friday, March 16. Email submissions to Chyrl Hill Lander or Sharon Dunham in the Communications & Media Relations Department or use the Focus Online Submission Form.