County students visit NASA
Fifty students in grades six through 12 from three Greene County schools, along with some teachers and administrators, visited NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., and NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., Monday.
Beating the Odds Foundation and NASA joined together to offer this educational and inspirational experience, not only for the students from Mapletown Junior-Senior High School, West Greene Middle-Senior High School and Margaret Bell Middle School, but all students across Pennsylvania via a live broadcast.
This partnership was formed to offer students with an experience that allows them to see what they are learning in school shapes their success in school, life and a career.
This was done through a research project that is part of the Beating the Odds Foundation’s Quarterbacks of Life Student Success & Leadership Program that allows students to apply their language arts and interpersonal skills and the Program’s 5 Stepping Stones to Success in researching NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
During the event, students got to listen and ask questions to Charlie Bolden, NASA administrator and astronaut who commanded the Hubble Space Mission, and Dr. John Grunsfeld, Hubble lead spacewalker and associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, speak about their own personal stories of becoming astronauts.
Students also got to listen to three scientists and one engineer speak about the Hubble Space Telescope and how they got to where they are today working at NASA.
Students were told to dream big, be flexible and open to change, not be afraid of failure, never give up and that anything is achievable in life.
Students also learned that to work at NASA you do not need to be an astronaut, scientist or engineer. The day ended with getting to see pieces of the new James Webb Space Telescope, which will be ready to launch in 2018.