OUR TURN: Colt Flight Week could be launching pad for future astronauts
Video: Watch it on the 3-23-10 newcast on ThePicayuneTV.com
Critics of the U.S. education system often decry an apparent lack of interest in science and technology among today’s students.
They worry that children in other nations will continue to outpace U.S. youths in math and engineering.
True, that would be a terrible legacy for the country that gave the world the Apollo moon missions, the microchip, the incandescent light bulb, the Internet and thousands of other technological marvels.
But if this past week is any indication, an observer would be hard-pressed to find a student at Marble Falls’ Colt Elementary School who wasn’t at least somewhat intrigued by science and technology.
The credit goes to the teachers who thought up Flight Week, a series of aeronautics-based demonstrations and lectures that kept kids engaged and excited about man’s creative efforts to defy gravity and conquer air and space.
The week involved plenty of hands-on participation, outdoor activities, demonstrations and exciting discussions — just the kinds of things that get students’ creative juices flowing.
That’s the trick to keeping today’s kids interested — get them to take part in the process, to feel a sense of ownership about the subject.
On Tuesday, students watched as members of the Highland Lakes Flyers brought more than a dozen remote-controlled airplanes to the school for a morning demonstration.
By Wednesday, students released balloons with a message to "Google Colt."
On Thursday Bertram resident Jerry Bostick, a former NASA engineer, regaled pupils with an insider’s account of the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission, and how teamwork brought the spaceship and its crew safely home to Earth.
Organizers also have planned a hot-air balloon demonstration for today, leading into the school’s Family Science Night 6-8 p.m. at the campus, 2200 The Manzano Mile.
The week-long activities helped kindle an appreciation for science and aviation and brought smiles to many faces.
Though for now the Obama Administration has scrapped plans for a government-funded mission that would return humankind to the moon, Mars has been named as the next destination for the astronauts.
Who knows? The excitement, laughter and unbridled enthusiasm kindled in Colt’s students this week may help them blast off to a career in aeronautics. Someday, they may not only help get the Mars mission off the ground; some of them could be the crew.
That’s what good science teaching does. It allows students to see the possibilities of tomorrow by getting them interested today.
The Daily Tribune editorial board includes Dan Alvey, Amber Alvey Weems, Thomas Edwards, Daniel Clifton and Chris Porter.