Student Interest

Student attention can get tough during the spring in NW PA. As we near the end of the year (49 more school days left), students can get lazy. If their grades are high enough, mathematically, they can shut down and drift through the remainder of the year. The fortunate part of my demanded curriculum change is that I'll be finishing the year out with space, followed by glaciation. Today, I read the students a news story about a Russian satellite falling to earth in a streaming ball of fire, "nearly" coming in contact with a jetliner. The discussion that ensued dragged the classes through the number of bits of "space junk" orbiting over their heads to the Taco Bell target for MIR space station. (for those not familiar, the MIR space station was the first Russian, long term habitation in space and set MANY records. It also brought the idea of living in space far into the future. When its usable life was over, it was abandoned and purposely set into a meteoric path with the earth. Taco Bell, seeing a great possibility for advertising, placed a huge bull's eye in the ocean near where MIR was supposed to land. Even those not interested in space were interested in whether or not the target would be hit. You see, if MIR hit the target, every human being on the face of the earth would receive a free taco.) The reentry of the space station was mundane and went pretty much as planned, missing the TB target. Talk about cheap publicity though!
Thinking of the number of things orbiting over your head can be scary and set you to thinking about what might be the next object to return to earth, but it makes for a good short writing exercise! So does the idea that the area where my students are currently living was once covered by a couple thousand feet of ice, and the house sized rocks that they see littering the landscape were once sitting happily in the Canadian countryside long before humans could have been held responsible for the warming of our planet. The earth is still rebounding from the tremendous heft of the ice sheets. Students can see the impacts of the ice and identify with what they see. It too is a good way to end the school year. I hope to keep the students engaged right up until the last day, learning about their world and preparing them for anything that they choose to do in the future. I believe that science, and the skills they learn will help them in any subject area they choose.