Students get message from space
Naujaat students hear about life in space from NASA
Darrell Greer
Northern News Services
Wednesday, December 21, 2016
NAUJAAT
Students at Tuugaalik High School in Naujaat got a glimpse of life in space earlier this month, with a video presentation from the National Aeronautics & Space Administration (NASA).
Biomedical flight controller Kate Kate Schoessler works at her station at NASA's mission control. Schoessler gave a video presentation on the International Space Station to a group of students in Naujaat - photo courtesy of Kate Schoessler |
Teacher Lloyd Francis invited Kate Schoessler, a biomedical flight controller for NASA to speak to his Grade 9 class, as well as a few invited Grade 8 students.
Teacher Lloyd Francis said he talked about what he wanted to do in each unit of the science curriculum at the beginning of the school year with his students, who thought it would be really cool if the class had the chance to talk to an astronaut.
Francis met Schoessler through a cadet friend during an international exchange to England in 2007. While not an actual astronaut, Schoessler is able to take control of the International Space Station from mission control.
"I sent her a message when I started my space unit, and she said she'd talk to the students from NASA," said Francis. "It was really cool for her to agree to do that, and it shows how the connections you make, and keep, throughout the years can really help out every now and then."
Many of his students are cadets, and Francis said they were intrigued with the story of how the program helped him connect with a future NASA employee.
"They realized I never would have met her if not for the cadet program, and that made a big impression on them," he said.
Francis said the students found Schoessler's presentation very interesting.
"When the topic of water in space came up, Kate went over how they recycle their urine at the space station to make drinkable water and that certainly didn't go over well with all the students," said Francis. "She explained recycling urine is necessary because water is so heavy it would cost a fortune to bring into space. Some of the students were pretty grossed out by that, and some were laughing about it, but all of them found the process very interesting."
Francis said the students were intrigued by life in general in space, especially what it's like living aboard a space station. He said they were also very interested in life on other planets, including wondering if humans could live on Mars.
"Jane referenced the movie, The Martian, and talked about how they're actually developing plants, and how part of her job is to try and figure out what plants can be grown in space and the impact that would have," he said. "We had some problems with the technology during her presentation, so I half-joked that it's probably easier for Kate to talk to the space station than us in Naujaat, because of how bad our Internet is up here."
