Teachers In Space

NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA — July 20, 1969 — At the NewSpace 2009 Conference, Teachers in Space introduced the next generation of space explorers: seven astronaut teachers who will boldly go where no astronaut has gone before — back into the classroom.

“Fifty years after the Mercury 7, on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo Moon landing, we’re rebooting the American space program,” said Teachers in Space project manager Edward Wright. “The Pathfinder 7 are now training to fly on suborbital spacecraft under development by private companies. They will be the first astronaut teachers to fly in space and return to the classroom, paving the way for hundreds to follow.”

A joint project of the Space Frontier Foundation and the United States Rocket Academy, Teachers in Space plans on using suborbital flights donated by and purchased from five suborbital companies. “We want to make teachers heroes in space, and heroes in the classroom,” Wright said.

Pathfinder 7 with Mojave Air and Space Port General Manager Stuart Witt.

Standing left to right, Mike Schmidt, Stephen Heck, Stuart Witt, Jim Kuhl. Seated left to right, Lanette Oliver, Chantelle Rose, Rachael Manzer, Maureen Adams

“The road to space does not start in an aerospace factory,” said Col. Rick Searfoss (USAF-ret.), a former Space Shuttle commander and chief test pilot for XCOR Aerospace, one of the suborbital rocket companies. “It starts in the imagination, and the best place to fire up young imaginations is in school.” Searfoss flew the Pathfinder 7 on recent training flights at the Skylark North, a glider school that trains USAF test pilots and NASA Shuttle astronauts.

The glider flights are only part of training the Pathfinder astronauts are receiving. The Pathfinders recently toured facilities at NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, NASA Ames Research Center, Edwards Air Force Base, and the Mojave Air and Space Port. They have also completed high-gee and zero-gee aircraft flights. Suborbital spaceflights are expected to begin in the next two to four years. In the interim, the Pathfinders will meet periodically for additional training. They will also help develop the training curriculum for astronaut teachers who follow.

The Pathfinder 7 come from schools in New York, Ohio, Texas, Connecticut, and Arizona, ranging from small rural schools to big urban schools with large minority populations. Three of the seven were previous finalists for NASA astronaut selections.

“When I was in 4th grade, I decided I wanted to be an astronaut, but I never had a teacher who told me I could do it,” said Chantelle Rose of St. Paris, Ohio. Rose teaches science in rural 700-student Graham High School, which sits in the middle of cornfields. “My students were excited simply by the news I was trying out for the program.”

“I think that space has a universal appeal to students, whatever their gender, ethnicity, age or background,” said Lanette Oliver of San Antonio. Oliver is a science specialist in the Judson Independent school District, which has a minority student population of over 60 percent. “By sending teachers to space, you let teachers talk from personal experience, and when teachers are excited about their subject, it infects their students and fellow teachers!”

Students aren’t the only people excited by Teachers in Space, said Steve Heck of Cincinnati, OH. “The superintendent leaped out of his chair when I told him the news,” said Heck, who began teaching after retiring from the U.S. Air Force as a lieutenant colonel. It’s been over a decade since he stopped flying jets for the Air Force, but the flight training with pilots like Rick Searfoss “brought it all back.” Heck teaches science at Milford Jr. High School, in the Milford Exempted Village School District.

“I heard Ed [Wright] talk at a Boston conference of the National Science Teachers Association when he talked about this program. I was amazed, excited, and inspired,” said Maureen Louis Adams of Lampasas, TX. Adams is a fifth grade science teacher and principal at West Ward Elementary in the Killeen Independent School District. “If kids see you as a risk taker, that gives both students and other teachers the inspiration to take risks, too.”

“I do a great deal of public speaking, and I find that what people often seek, whether they are young, or well-established in their careers, is an inspiring goal,” said Searfoss. “For years, it seemed as if space flight were the sole preserve of large government programs and a tiny elite astronaut corps. As a result, many people gave up the dream as utterly impossible. Today small and large aerospace companies are developing new systems that will dramatically lower the cost of going to space and enable more people to safely experience space. Teachers in Space will rekindle the dream of space flight for millions of students, and bring the wonder of space alive for students and help them appreciate science and technology in a new way.”

The Pathfinder 7 are:

Maureen Louis Adams, 54, of Lampasas, TX. She is an elementary school teacher/principal from Killeen, TX. She established one of the first elementary robotics program in the nation, has been a guest instructor at US Space Camp, and has flown weightless experiments on NASA aircraft twice.

James Kuhl, 53, of Syracuse, NY. He is a 6th grade Earth Science teacher from Syracuse, NY. The third time is the charm for Kuhl, who applied for the original NASA Teacher in Space program in 1985; and applied for the second teacher program, called the Educator Astronaut program. He was a finalist in 2004. He has received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Math and Science Education and serves on the board of directors of the Science Teachers Association of New York State.

Lanette Oliver, 43, of San Antonio. She is an elementary science specialist for the Judson Independent School District. She grew up on a farm in Washington, Oklahoma. She now teaches predominantly minority students in San Antonio, TX. She has been a Golden Apple Award winner, a Texas Space Grant Scholarship winner, and was one of four teachers selected by the Texas Space Grant Consortium to fly aboard a NASA microgravity flight in January, 2009.

Stephen Heck, 56, of Cincinnati. He is an 8th grade Earth Science teacher in the Milford Exempted Village School District. He is a former department chairman and professor of Aerospace Studies at the University of Cincinnati. A US Air Force veteran, he has over 2,700 flight hours in jet aircraft and holds two world records set in KC-10 aircraft.

Rachael Manzer, 39, of East Hartland, CT. She is a district science coach in the Suffield School District. She teaches and models inquiry-based science lessons for K-12 classrooms. She is a former NASA distance learning educator and was a finalist for the NASA Educator Astronaut selection in 2004. She is president-elect of the Connecticut Science Teachers Association.

Chantelle Rose, 36, of St. Paris, OH. Rose teaches science at Graham High School in St. Paris.
She was named the 2006 Ohio Teacher of the Year by the Air Force Association, the 2007 Ohio Earth Science Teacher of the Year by the National Association of Geoscience Teachers, and the 2008 Aerospace Teacher of the Year by the Scott Crossfield Foundation. She was a finalist for the NASA Educator Astronaut selection in 2004.

Robert “Mike” Schmidt, 31, of Tucson, AZ. A second-generation teacher, Schmidt teaches math to grades 9, 10, 11, and 12 at University High School, in the Tucson Unified School District. An 8-year education veteran, he found out about Teachers in Space while attending a National Science Teachers Association meeting.

For more information about the Teachers in Space organization, you can visit: www.teachers-in-space.org.

For more information contact:

Doug Graham – 661-742-7514

email: douglas.graham51@yahoo.com

Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX — February 7, 2009 — Teachers from across the nation met here today to help design a new training course for astronaut teachers. The workshop, attended by more than 50 teachers, was sponsored by Teachers in Space, which aims to put hundreds of American teachers into space.  “Teachers in Space is a nonprofit program working with the companies that are now developing low-cost, reusable spacecraft,” said Teachers in Space project manager Edward Wright. “Our long-term goal is to fly 200 teachers a year, four from each and every state in the Union.” 

Before those teachers fly, they will train. Teachers in Space plans to offer a three-week astronaut teacher training course for those chosen to fly. “The course will include about three days of spaceflight safety instruction and two and a half weeks of professional development for teachers,” Wright said. “Astronaut teachers will fly during the summer and return to the classroom in the fall with a priceless payload of knowledge and first-hand experience. Every astronaut teacher will reach and inspire hundreds of students every year. For the first time, space can have a real effect on American education.”

Teachers in Space is now working with teachers to design the content of the professional development program. “Over the next year or two, we will be conducting a series of workshops like this one in various locations around the United States,” Wright said. “We want teachers to tell us what activities they’d like to see in the astronaut teacher course. It is their ideas that will fuel our program.” 

Teachers in Space has also begun the process of selecting its first Pathfinder astronauts, who will be the first astronaut teachers to fly in space  and return to the classroom. “The Pathfinders will lead the way for the large number of astronaut teachers who follow,” Wright said, “They will go back into the classroom, but we hope that they will return each summer to help teach the new astronaut teacher course.”    

Rob Radnich, a physics and computer science teacher from Meadville, PA was one of the teachers who attended the first workshop, which was held at the Space Exploration Educators Conference at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Radnich feels that Teachers in Space “can be used to boost America to the same drive we felt in the 50’s and 60’s, to become a world leader in all areas, especially technology.” 

Harry LaForge, an aviation teacher from Missoula, MT agreed. ”We must find many ways to excite the next generation of aviators,” LaForge said.

Teachers in Space is a joint project of the Space Frontier Foundation and the United States Rocket Academy. More information about Teachers in Space is available on the website, www.TeachersInSpace.org.

Dramatic action is needed to counter America’s teacher dropout problem, according to Teachers in Space education director Don McMahon.

“Everyone knows we have a dropout problem among high-school students,” said McMahon, a 40-year veteran teacher. “Most people don’t realize that the dropout rate for teachers is even higher.”

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, almost half of all teachers quit teaching during their first five years. In rural schools and low-income areas, the dropout rate is even higher. Schools with more than 75% minority, disadvantaged, or Hispanic students lose over 20% of their teachers every year, according to the Haberman Educational Foundation.

“The numbers alone do not convey the full severity of the problem,” said McMahon. “It’s not just the number of teachers who are leaving but the quality of teachers. The best qualified teachers are often those who leave first because they have the easiest time finding employment in other fields.

“We cannot solve this problem through ‘business as usual.’ We need innovative new incentives for teachers to remain in education. Government cannot do this alone — the private sector must play a role as well.”

Teachers in Space is a non-profit private-sector program designed to create such incentives, said Teachers in Space project manager Edward Wright.

Teachers in Space is working with the private companies that are developing new reusable suborbital spacecraft, which promise dramatic improvements in cost and safety. These low-cost vehicles will enable large numbers of teachers to fly in space and return to the classroom. “Our goal is to raise $20 million to fly 200 teachers a year, four from each and every state in the Union. We want to put a thousand astronaut teachers into American schools, within the next decade,” Wright said.

“We want to make teachers heroes. At Johnson Space Center, I met a computer programmer who told me, ‘I used to be a science teacher. I left teaching because of the salary, but if your program had existed at that time, I would have stayed in teaching.’ That’s the sort of teacher we’re trying to reach. That’s the kind of incentive we want to create.”

As a first step, Teachers in Space is currently recruiting Pathfinders who will be the first Teacher Astronauts to fly in space and return to the classroom. After their flights, which are expected to take place in 2010 or 2011, Pathfinders will be invited to return each summer to help teach the next class of astronaut teachers.

The deadline for teachers to submit Pathfinder astronaut applications is December 4, 2008. Finalists will be announced and training will begin on selected weekends in 2009. Teachers who are selected will not have to give up their day jobs.

More information about Teachers in Space is available on the project website: www.teachers-in-space.org.

Pathfinder application forms and information about the application process are available at: www.teachers-in-space.org/apply/apply.htm.

Teachers in Space is a joint project of the Space Frontier Foundation and the United States Rocket Academy. 

Teachers in Space is a joint project of the Space Frontier Foundation and the United States Rocket Academy.

A new astronaut program will help inspire American students to study math and science, countering the decline that has produced what experts call “a generation at risk.”

“For almost 50 years, teachers have told students that if they excelled at math and science, they could grow up to become astronauts,” said Teachers in Space project manager Edward Wright. “Up to now, that has mostly been a false hope.

“Even at the height of the Shuttle program, a student had a better chance of becoming an NBA basketball star than a NASA astronaut. What kind of message does that send to the next generation?”

“We want to turn that around,” said Rick Tumlinson, co-founder of the Space Frontier Foundation and a Teachers in Space advisor. “American industry is developing a new generation of reusable suborbital spacecraft, which promise dramatic improvements in cost and safety. We will use these spacecraft to fly large numbers of teachers in space and put those teachers right back into the classroom where they can share the excitement, knowledge, and experience of space travel.

“Imagine a thousand astronaut teachers in American classrooms, touching millions of students. What effect will that have on math and science education?”

To accomplish that goal, Teachers in Space will eventually need to raise $20 million a year. “That will allow us to fly 200 teachers a year, four from each and every state in the Union,” Wright said.

Response has been positive so far. Five aerospace companies that are developing suborbital vehicles have pledged flights to the program, and the United States Rocket Academy has purchased additional flights for Teachers in Space and other educational programs. Simultaneously, teachers have started to submit applications for the first Pathfinder Teacher Astronaut flights, which are expected to occur in 2010 or 2011.

Pathfinders will be the first Teacher Astronauts to fly in space and return to the classroom. Later, they will be invited to return each summer to help teach the next class of astronaut teachers.

The deadline for teachers to submit Pathfinder astronaut applications is December 4, 2008. Finalists will be announced and training will begin on selected weekends in 2009. Teachers who are selected will not have to give up their day jobs.

More information about Teachers in Space is available on the project website: www.teachers-in-space.org.

Pathfinder application forms and information about the application process are available at: www.teachers-in-space.org/apply/apply.htm.

Teachers in Space is a joint project of the Space Frontier Foundation and the United States Rocket Academy.