by the year 2000 the united states will
have its first laboratory in space
with the design made of modular sections
the space station will be a work center
in orbit and will offer many benefits to
our world
utilizing the scientific analogy of the
space station in educational settings
can pave the way to ensure that our
nation will have a qualified pool of
scientists engineers computer
specialists researchers and technicians
who will lead us into the 21st century
as the space explorers of the future
using the space station as a way to
enhance instruction is exemplified at
the anton gradina primary achievement
elementary school
in cleveland ohio
students teachers parents and the entire
community have come together with the
help of the nasa lewis research center
the cleveland metropolitan housing
authority cmha
and the cleveland city school district
to form
the educational empowerment project
a project that entices students to
imagine themselves as future astronauts
on a mission into space
but for the students at anton the future
starts today
anton gradina is located near a cmaj
public housing development
the poverty rate for this area is
extremely high the anton project
represents a partnership between cmha
nasa lewis and the cleveland public
schools
the intent of the project is to empower
parents to better work with their
children in science activities
a lot of other organizations and
individuals have joined us in the
endeavor
in fact the project demonstrates what we
can accomplish when we work together as
a team
in addition the project has attracted a
lot of national attention
including visits to anton gradina by
congressman louis stokes nasa
administrator dan golden and astronaut
charles bolden
the
1991-92 school year
marked the beginning of a full-scale
aerospace program
the ultimate goal was to build the space
station habitat module
the students named their space station
space station harmony
their space station would serve as the
site for many space related activities
in order to build a habitat it was
important for the students teachers and
parents to learn more about space
for the students monthly assemblies and
small classroom sessions were held to
explore scientific concepts as they
relate to humankind on earth and in
space
food and nutrition were studied to show
the importance of having a good diet
that includes the four major food groups
other examples of food and nutrition
demonstrated to the students how food is
packaged for space and how the
astronauts eat in
in space as it does on the earth
another activity explained to students
how to say no to drugs
and how to stay in good health by doing
daily
exercises the students underwent some
pretty vigorous exercise routines to
show what astronauts must do to help
stay physically fit in space
scientific concepts introduced to the
students about newton's laws of motion
including action reaction activities
held the student's interests as they
were amused and enthused with this
unique experiment
some of the small classroom sessions
demonstrated magnetism
aeronautics
and how humankind has changed their mode
of transportation from horse and buggy
all the way up to the high-tech way of
life we have today
traveling in space with the help of
today's space transportation system
the students at anton cuadina were
having so much fun learning how to do
experiments
learning how to grow things
learning how to measure things
and learning about comets
that they didn't realize they were
learning at all
claire friedman executive director of
the cleveland metropolitan housing
authority cmaj
shares her thoughts about the program
and what she calls an integrated
approach to teaching
i just think it's fantastic i'm so
pleased to be
involved in this with the parents of our
housing project that that this school
serves
and everyone's very excited about it
the other popular word that's used these
days is holistic
and we do buy into that and and believe
that there should be more of this kind
of effort more of a holistic
delivery of services to our families
and
it's absolutely critical that the
housing authority get more involved in
programs such as this that that opens
the
the uh the world for the children so
that they know there's something beyond
this
this small little neighborhood here
parents attended numerous workshops
throughout the school year
to learn about the space project so they
could share in their child's academic
progress
parents enjoyed an exciting field trip
to nasa lewis research center for
first-hand aerospace experience
plans were drawn up and purchases made
of materials creatively developed to
make practically everything needed for
the habitat modules
with the help of community organizations
and nasa representatives
parents worked hard to construct the
foundation for space station harmony
mel jacobs has been a third grade
teacher at anton cudina for 24 years and
is impressed with the results of the
aerospace project it's hands-on it's not
something they have to read in the book
they have to just work with it and this
way they're able to work with it
as a hands-on experience depending on
the program by this type of program
absolutely if it's a beneficial program
no question about it
sometimes programs have to be looked
into more in depth but this one worked
out perfectly for the students the
teachers and the community with cmha and
nasa and anton godina working together
staff at anton gudina incorporated the
space theme across the curriculum
utilizing science and math concepts
through the aerospace mission
the teachers also involved themselves
with numerous space and technological
experiences and training
to assist them with their classroom
teaching
okay
teachers and support staff develop
lesson plans bulletin boards
classroom and hall displays around the
space theme to provide the students with
the space related learning environment
teachers also develop contests for the
students to design a school logo for the
space project and a contest to name the
space station habitat
the time has finally come for the
liftoff of space station harmony
everyone is so excited especially the
students
and this is going to be a fantastic day
okay mrs coleman do they know where
their positions are
ines powell principal of anton gradina
is the guiding force behind the school's
participation
in the educational empowerment project
her dedication and commitment to
educational excellence has been an
inspiration to everyone who took part in
the program
been a year-long project
they have
been studying space
activities and as they relate in space
and on earth
example
food the importance of a good basic diet
and how does that translate for a diet
for astronauts in space
um
general health physical fitness
and in doing
various studies of the
vehicles that are used in space they've
had monthly
in services
by nasa engineers where we've had
school-wide assemblies and small group
sessions and they've studied such things
advanced things as newton's laws
propulsion etc
it's been incorporated throughout the
curriculum since day one and that means
that we do not only what the district
asks us ask of us but we also
incorporate the space and science theme
in reading
and they have daily journal writing
i think the interest in learning
the fun that they're having
has become is very infectious
they're transmitting that home
and the parents are very excited about
it because the children come home
excited
and as a result an offshoot of that
we're having a high level of parent
participation
which
turns into
a lesson of
support assistance with the parents
assisting
the staff at the school
with our whole purpose the whole reason
this is this is about is so that the
students will be acclimated at a very
young age in the math and sciences
and hopefully continue on as they grow
older and go through their
education
and not have that
dreaded fear of the science and the math
because they have enjoyed it at an early
age and they've developed a sincere
interest
hopefully we may have an astronaut in
the future from anton from this very
project that has generated so much
interest students have taken it
um
so far where they have done experiments
at home on their own
parents have become involved we have in
the corridor that
is
directly proceeds entry into the
decontamination chamber where students
and families together
have built space stations
they have done all types of journal
writing on it and you know the more you
write the more you read the more you
learn the better your handwriting the
better your spelling the better your
creative thinking
it's all it's it's
just enhanced everything across the
curriculum and and just recently in the
last few days we you may have heard a
loud noise we
saw our test results this year and we
were ecstatic and we have to attribute
much of
what we've done this year to that we
have been
watching our test scores for the fourth
four years
and this being
the next year we watched them for four
years there has been
increase each year
and there have been a few decreases
because we're in the middle of
implementing a new magnet school program
non-graded primary achievement
and we're also using
schoolwide service so we're in the
process of implementing two major
programs
and we were watching very carefully
carefully to see how all of the effects
of those programs the benefits of those
programs were affecting test scores we
saw increases but this year
we saw significant increases and the
staff let out cheers like you wouldn't
believe and it made them feel great
because they knew
that all the efforts and the
enjoyment that has been generated this
year with this project
has taken on such
excitement for everyone that it
actually
was working and other things were
happening the fun of learning
translated into
real
hardcore
education we have
shown
increases
where we have
met or surpassed the cluster and we are
in cleveland were
divided into six clusters
of
schools six
areas and we have surpassed
the other schools in our cluster in math
and reading
vocabulary and comprehension
we have met or surpassed the district's
achievement yes in in areas of reading
and math with our three grade levels so
you're leading the way we're leading the
way
what we thought was a minor project has
turned into something very major but in
becoming very major
a lot of excitement has been generated
and we the benefits are many we've
seen a
very a tripling of parent participation
tripling
where
before the project began we had some
parent participation it has
at least tripled
we have had an increase of staff support
as far as staying after school
we worked on weekends
we've worked after school we've worked
late evenings i understand staff who
worked at homes
we have had
our organizations that are adopted
school partners
have come in they've pitched in so we've
gotten all type of community support for
this project that has
our volunteer records are soaring
the staff i would say the benefits for
them in addition to myself i'm not
excluding myself we have learned so much
about space things that we didn't even
know about before
and it is also served as a vehicle to
bring cohesion to the staff
every student at anton has experienced
many joys and wonders of excitement from
this program
an excitement that can be instilled in
every child's learning experience with
the help of hands-on aerospace
activities developed by nasa
to enhance science and math teaching in
a way that makes learning easy
enjoyable
interesting
compelling
and fun
the educational empowerment project is
indeed an experience that children at
anton will never forget
my name's david fletcher david fletcher
and what grade are you in kindergarten
what have you learned from this project
i learned how to do our homework
in our math
and we and we gonna
play nicely and talk nicely
and speak up nicely
speak up nicely
did you
did you uh what do you want to be when
you grow up
i want to be a bus driver all right now
i wanted to ask you do you know the
planets yet
how about telling me what the planets
are that you know sun mercury
venus
what's your favorite planet
pluto
how come
because it's nice in there and cold
and you don't like hot weather
i really like hot water i learned how to
like um
grow some plants
and what would happen to things if you
like put them in something
like if you would put germs in a little
case and tape it up
they would start growing
because in my class they're starting
growing germs
and they hit them in these little cases
and the next day they had water on the
top of them
parents of the children at anton gradina
were active participants in the program
they are thrilled with the effects of
the program which promises their
children enthusiasm for learning
they are also delightfully pleased to
have been given the opportunity to share
their child's learning experience
by working together for such a
meaningful effort
kim chandler
and you have a kid in the school yeah i
have a preschooler
chad chandler
and the preschoolers
they made little astronauts
out of paper life size
and they have their name on it they drew
the faces
and they have them outside the classroom
door for so many months until the other
students get their space
space outfits and they make those and
they put them on the side so she brought
hers home and he's hanging on the door
and it's so nice and they teach them
about the planets and you know told them
about the uh
moon and the stars and i saw at night
time she looks up well so my teacher
told me that this and is that the big
dipper you know and it's good to see
them with their minds on something so
uh
should i say children are interested in
science that much at four and five years
old but when it's introduced to them at
such young ages in preschool and whatnot
they have a chance to have the interest
of science and space and things so when
they get older they won't be so
immune to these things when they get in
fourth and third grade when they have
science they say well i learned this in
preschool my teacher told me this and i
heard of this so they won't have to just
hear from their parents all the time
they can come to school and get it are
you learning anything
well yeah
yeah i've learned quite a bit i learned
that jupiter was the biggest planet and
you know in space and i didn't know that
so it's a lot of things i'm
understanding that i didn't understand
because when i was young i wasn't
interested in science and the moons and
the stars and whatnot so i think it's
real good i think this is really good we
were going over the
he's over with the signs the astrology
and
i wasn't familiar with all the stars
that
were supposedly in disguise
and he was showing me some of the things
that
kind of
it was pretty interesting
this has been very interesting uh
morning for me you know
it's re-stimulated me because uh my my
grandson and myself have a globe at home
that we go over
and i see that he's learned more than i
gave him credit for when he answered
your questions
and uh
my son uh
studied at home uh with uh his mother
and i
uh uh the planets and so forth he
probably doesn't remember that but uh
i've never seen a school
participate in the manner that this one
has
the
project from nasa has really stimulated
the community
leonard cobbs is a nasa pilot
but devotes much of his time assisting
coordinating
and or
conducting educational programs and
learning activities for lewis research
center
he is impressed with the magnitude of
student interest in technological
subjects
and with the continuous cooperation and
support shown by parents
they ask very technical questions
because they're interested they want to
know and the challenge to me is to try
to distill the science down to the same
first grade level kindergarten level and
still keep it
accurate
they want to know like how airplanes
turn or questions evolving lyft then
something that you just can't
paraphrase you just have to just try to
distill it down
so that's that's the challenge to me
what made work was just a combination of
everybody coming together kids were easy
because they're young and they're
curious but we had to overcome the
initial resistance of the parents like
they were suspicious is this going to
work well adults tend to be suspicious
of something new then we had to commit
convince the school board and cmha and a
lot of other people that this really
would work
this is now the second year
and as we see here it's starting to
snowball and we know we don't have the
problem now convincing people this will
work
we brought them out to nasa
because this is uh we don't just work
the children the parents have to be
involved so when the children came out
to nasa for a tour the parents had to
come along and they got the tour they
got to ask questions and
we're not trying to teach the parents
per se but we want them to know enough
about what's going on so if they get a
follow-on question when they go home
that they can reinforce what we're doing
john hairston is the director of
external programs at nasa lewis he has
played a major role in ensuring support
of the educational empowerment effort
most important aspect of the program is
the partnership that has been developed
between cmha
between the cleveland public schools
anti-gradina
in particular and most of all the
partnership that nasa lewis research
center has with these two entities
it goes to show that when we begin to
focus and work together
and and let that focus be on children
that we can succeed
i will say to you that we have a
commitment at nasa lewis research center
we will be following these children to
the next level
and hopefully down the road we will be
able to provide a national model just by
using the anti-grandina model
to service children and acquaint them
with the sciences the the sciences
and some of the other technical kinds of
skills that we want them to have
director of nasa lewis research center
larry ross
took time out of his busy schedule to
visit anton gradina on launch day
he had been briefed on the project and
was given numerous details
about the outstanding results of the
program
however mr ross's visit turned out to be
one of amazement as he was overcome by
the glowing results from space station
harmony
after having just
walked through the
culmination
of a whole school year's worth of
activity where people from nasa
both the federal workforce and our
contractor workforce and the wonderful
beautiful vibrant young people here at
antonina gardena school
have been learning and playing and
having a grand time for all this period
of the school and today is the end of of
that activity uh just shows
uh it's almost indescribable to get the
spirit into words the spirit i just saw
on on the part of the teachers and the
young people into words but it shows
still the impact
of our program and the impact of our
people can have on kids
uh making the learning experience be
the kind of fun event
the interesting space these kids have
allows it to be
and it's just been a wonderful day and a
wonderful experience and
i think we can share some lessons we've
learned and
we have learned a lot over the past
period of time with these young people
but it's been just great and i thank
everybody who took part in it
sandy walters is an educational
specialist for the office of educational
programs at nasa lewis
she serves as the program manager for
the anton project
she oversaw the design of the modules
for space station harmony and work to
ensure that all aspects of the
empowerment project function smoothly
in addition miss walters was
instrumental in providing nasa's
educational resources
aerospace activities
and technical assistance needed from
nasa's staff to make the program a
success
i have thoroughly enjoyed working with
the partners in this educational
endeavor and especially with anton
gradina
throughout my career
while working with students
i have never experienced such enthusiasm
for learning as i have with the children
of anton and i am intensely moved by the
cooperation and support received from
the parents and the staff
the positive results from this program
have stimulated all of us
with excitement and encouragement to
reach the next level
this project is just the beginning as we
look to move this program forward
the experience the children have had
and working with hands-on aerospace
activities
has helped to prove that school-aged
children can achieve an interest in
science and math and thereby exhale to
new heights
shining stars and become our space
explorers of the future
you