By MELISSA DANIEL
Special to Atmore News
Five action-packed 12-hour days provided Escambia County Middle School math teacher Marcia Adams an experience of a lifetime. Recently, she had the opportunity to attend Space Academy for Educators (aka Space Camp) with 70 other educators in Huntsville.
She was able to be an astronaut and travel into space. She was able to be an engineer and build a rocket. She was a scientist and performed experiments on the international space station. (ISS)
She was able to feel what it would be like to walk on the moon and feel 3G’s. She experienced the stress of being a flight director on a NASA mission. She landed a rover on Mars and built a lunar colony. She was able to reenact a helicopter crash and be lifted to safety. She experienced space travel and saw the Earth from up above.
In all activities, Ms. Adams could see how math and science work together to further knowledge here on Earth. She was challenged by former astronaut Bob Gibson to find ways to integrate reading, writing and communication of the English language to her students while engaging them in the exciting world of math and science.
NASA chemist, physicist and engineer Lowell Zoeller shared that NASA has a job for everyone. Trade jobs are needed because once a colony is built on the moon, every job will be needed. He stated that teamwork, communication and writing were the key to success in job force. Thinking spontaneously and being able to problem solve is a key to teaching skills for the future as there are jobs that have yet to be created.
Ms. Adams is excited to bring back this knowledge and share the resources provided to her with the students of Atmore.
Melissa Daniel, formerly a teacher at ECMS, now teaches at Robertsdale Elementary.