Fall 2007 Issue

Missioner II, a van turned space shuttle, made a five-day journey on the turnpike across Pennsylvania in April 1990. (Photos courtesy of the author)

Launching Dreams

The Long-Term Impact of SAREX and ARISS on Student Achievement

KB3NMS traces the nearly two-decade history of her students’ involvement with
SAREX and ARISS from their middle school days to their current careers.

By Patricia Palazzolo, KB3NMS

Uh oh! With that exchange my heart nearly stopped! Secondary . . . and still no response? What was wrong? The huge room was filled with students, family members, teachers, and members of the media, and all eyes were glued to the wall-size tracking screen. We could see that the International Space Station was in the “footprint” over Pittsburgh, yet we heard nothing. Would the months of preparation leading up to this moment end in disappointment?
Once again came the calm voice of our amateur radio “wizard,” Jim Sanford, WB4GCS:

NA1SS, this is WB4GCS on Primary. . . weak but readable . . .

Then we all heard it:

WB4GCS, this is the International Space Station, NA1SS. Your signal is getting stronger.

The collective breath released by all, and the brightness of the grins on every face, seemed powerful enough to blast us all into orbit without a shuttle! The excited students began their Q&A with Expedition 9 astronaut Mike Fincke, but in fact the opportunity for this exchange had its beginnings 15 years earlier with an entirely different group of eager middle schoolers.

Orbiting the Turnpike

Back in 1985, over 11,000 teachers completed lengthy applications in hopes of becoming NASA’s first “Teacher-in-Space.” After a long and grueling selection process, two teachers were chosen to represent each state and U.S. territory. I was thrilled to be selected as one of the two Pennsylvania representatives. I was assigned to the same training group as New Hampshire teacher Christa McAuliffe; after Christa’s eventual selection as America’s Teacher-in-Space, I was both pleased and honored that NASA appointed the remaining state finalists “Space Ambassadors” and assigned us the task of promoting aerospace education in our home states. In the months leading up to the Challenger launch number one, like the rest of the Teacher-in-Space finalists, I received requests to drive ever farther to conduct school assemblies, run teacher workshops, and give speeches. The public was definitely caught up in the dream. The nightmare came that January.

3—2—1—Liftoff! I watched Challenger rise, brighter than the sun, into that clear blue sky and heard the voice of the public affairs officer come over the loudspeakers at the viewing site: Obviously a major malfunction . . . the vehicle has exploded.

I returned to Pennsylvania to find a blur of phone calls, cameras in my face, and questions—questions as to possible damage to children’s psyches, whether the Teacher-in-Space Project had been nothing more than a public-relations stunt, and whether we should be spending any money at all on the space program. What I did not return to find was any lack of the ability of space exploration to continue to inspire students and teachers.
And so it was on a warm spring day in 1989 that I received a phone call out of the blue from Mary Ellen Chuss-Mirro, a dynamic teacher in the small Sacred Heart School in the town of Bath on the opposite side of Pennsylvania. She had read that I was “NASA Space Ambassador” to the state and wondered if I had any ideas for “experiments” her middle school students could conduct to keep them busy so they would not “drive her husband crazy” while he drove them around the Bethlehem Raceway on a two-hour “mission” in the van that they had converted into a “space shuttle.” I came up with several suggestions, and intrigued, called her back several weeks later to find out if the mission had been a success. Delighted with the outcome and bubbling with enthusiasm, she said her only concern was that she did not know how she would top it the following year.

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