Horizon soars during Space Week
During Space Week, Horizon Elementary School students viewed the stars, dropped eggs and used lab wheels.
Space Week focuses on one area of science “that kids love and really get into in-depth,” enrichment specialist Beth Bero said. In North Alabama, Space Week can rely on local history and careers.
Students are exposed to scientific thought, experimentation, astronomy and rockets, Bero said.
The 2012 theme was “Engineering the Future.”
Ray Cole with Huntsville Area Rocketry Association (HARA) brought A, B and C engines for launches on Horizon’s soccer field. One rocket with a video camera recorded waves from the student body; HARA’s Bill Cooke emailed the film link for viewing.
Sixth-graders created “safe” capsules for their “payloads” of eggs to survive the ground impact, similar to the Mars Lander bouncing inside a balloon-like structure. A Huntsville Utilities ‘cherry picker’ truck lifted and dropped egg capsules. Fourteen capsules survived, Bero said.
Doug Horacek with the Von Braun Astronomical Society brought a solar telescope. Students viewed sunspots, one sending a flare.
Planetarium presentations were tailored to each grade level. For younger students, Bero used a “Star Lab wheel” with Native American constellations. Older students used a regular “night sky wheel.” Sixth-graders discussed navigation, longitude and latitude with a geographic star wheel.
Phillip Robertson with Woodmen of the World Insurance Agency loaned the star lab.
A grant from the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) funded in-school field trips. All About Learning supplied racecars and construction cranes, and Bricks 4 Kidz participated.
Horizon teachers conducted space-related lessons. Annette Driggers’ second-graders compiled planet books and large, three-dimension model planets. Volunteer Dr. Alisa Henrie coordinated the egg drop.
Sixth-grader Monique McNeal enjoyed the history of sun and learned “Galileo used sunspots to learn that it rotates.” Second-grader Cady Seaman enjoyed seeing the sun by telescope.
Second-grader Cameron Harris was amused by bubbling Mentos in Coca-Cola. Third-grader Joy Robinson liked building her own satellite.
Sixth-grader Tan Vo liked the egg drop. In the planetarium, Kennedy Mitchell “was scared of the dark, but I liked the stars.”
