this flame's a pretty hot fun so if we
looked at a star which would be a hot
star blue one and a cold one would be
red right okay how to get students
excited about learning science that's a
question that teachers across the
country face daily and the answer may be
in the stars along with the next space
shuttle nasa will be launching a new
education program designed to give
teachers and students a big lift the
program is called space classroom
assignment the stars it will happen
during astro one a space lab mission
dedicated to astronomy
our purpose is to involve teachers and
their students in the excitement of
space shuttle science missions and also
to provide educators with some
additional teaching tools that they can
use in their classrooms at the heart of
the space classroom program is a lesson
on the electromagnetic spectrum taught
by science astronauts in space as they
orbit the earth there will be
demonstrations from a classroom within
the astro one control center in
huntsville alabama
and an opportunity for students to ask
questions of the astronauts in orbit
students from five states will
participate at two nasa facilities the
marshall space flight center in
huntsville and the goddard space flight
center in greenbelt maryland students at
the marshall center will take part in
three full days of activities that
include laboratory sessions sitting
alongside space lab controllers as they
direct science activities aboard the
shuttle and going to nearby u.s space
camp
space classroom subject matter is
similar to what these students could
expect in their home schools the kids in
space classroom will be doing some
hands-on activities to explain the
characteristics and components of the
electromagnetic spectrum and that is a
basic physics concept we'll be talking
about not only the visible light but
also invisible forms of energy such as
ultraviolet and x-ray although these
ideas are basic space classroom will
give students a new perspective on their
significance
it's one thing to learn about a
scientific concept in the classroom
but it's something else entirely to see
how that concept is being applied
by astronauts aboard the space shuttle
for example
and that link between the classroom and
the real world is what space classroom
is all about nasa hopes this new program
will help teachers bring science down to
earth for their students by taking the
classroom to space
in huntsville alabama this is mike
arrington reporting
you know i'll tell you tell you guys
something we we had a uh
governor hunt is here but we had a
governor's conference the governors from
all the states
and i don't think any president has had
that before but one of the goals
a national goal first time they ever set
national goals
was to have much more
literacy and fluency in math and science
and so you're out on the cutting edge i
mean just the knowledge of this but but
it's a very important goal in
keeping our country competitive and
keeping us
continuing to to lead the world in
in science and math this whole
educational goal so good luck
um each element puts off its own color
and an emission emits a certain color
and we see the copper makes a nice green
flame every time so but that's just fine
have you sit down you can't mr if you
would go ahead and try this one
all right
sure
what do i got here then okay you have
lithium and lithium always makes a red
flame so if we saw this red flame again
we would know that we had lithium the
space classroom lessons will enable
students to hear a lecture by the
shuttle team
and then interact with questions
and discussion
the entire learning session will be
carried by the nasa select to classrooms
across the country
what a powerful way
to teach our kids
the importance of space
what a great example of the fa of the
effect of our space program
and the effect of our space program
on education well we're seeing that test
scores are declining in math and science
and that shows us that kids are really
losing interest in math and science they
seem to think that it's something that
only geniuses can do and it's not
applicable to their lives but we think
that it really is a day-to-day thing
teachers are losing sight of that and
they need to be encouraged to teach it
day-to-day in the classroom kids need to
see that it's something that would help
them in their future as a consumer and a
voter and also math and science are real
things that they could go into as a
career does that make sense so light
always travels
at the same speed and they have
different frequencies and then different
wavelengths