7th Grade Visits NASA

St. Michael students made the grade with NASA's ground control
by Amy Alderman, Triblocal.com reporter

Students at St. Michael School in Orland Park manned a simulated air traffic control center April 22 through a NASA distance learning program, called Line Up With Math.

Greg Pitzer at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif. led 7th-graders via satellite video in applying their math skills to change simulated plane routes and speeds.

"This is amazing-talk about practical knowledge for kids," said Technology Director Diane Zuzga, who coordinated the program.

Pitzer, a digital learning network coordinator at NASA, said his hope is that the study of flight and space is brought close to home for the students.

While examining flight plans from Modesto, Calif. to San Francisco, students attempted to guide the routes of three virtual airplanes to ground them safely and on time.

"We hope that the students learn how the skills they are learning in class apply directly to real world applications that NASA is researching," Pitzer said. "Hopefully, the students realize that they need to analyze a problem carefully, construct a plan to solve the issues and learn how to evaluate their plan at the end."

The NASA program is one of 17 distance learning programs St. Michael students have experienced. Since January, they witnessed a day-in-the-life of astronauts, interviewed a Holocaust survivor, met students in Ireland, viewed the life cycles of amphibians and went on a virtual tour to the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Though funding from a private donor, advanced technology has quickly become an everyday part of curricula at St. Michael School. SMART boards were recently installed in each classroom.

Sister Pat McKee's 5th-grade religion class worked on memorizing the seven sacraments April 22, using an interactive game on the SMART boards. Nancy Ramig's junior high science class celebrated Earth Day by playing a carbon footprint quiz game.

Principal Bernadette Cuttone said she has seen learning transform for students from work to fun through the programs.

"I often hear students say, ‘Why do I have to do this, why do I have to do math?'" Cuttone said. "Through these programs, all of the world is open to them. They see that they can be mathematicians, biologists. They can be air traffic controllers."

See this article on Triblocal.com.