From: mkennedy@shentel.net (Marilyn Kennedy)
Subject: CU with Dr. McKay
Date: Wed, 16 Oct 1996 07:59:33 -0400
Errors-to: mail-mgr@quest.arc.nasa.gov Folks, Just had to share with you one great afternoon , even with some Internet disconnections and a fire drill..... Wednesday afternoon my students and I participated in a CUSeeMe conference (1pm-2pm) with David McKay. This videoconference is sponsored by the "Ask a Scientist" series of video conferences in conjunction with Rice University, Global School House and well, who knows who else..... To get ready for this conference and our upcoming Mars Projects, we watched a video by Discovery Channel "Life on Mars?" Then I teamed the students and asked them to come up with possible questions. As Dr. McKay gave his talk, my students and I started typing in our questions. And all of a sudden we heard, "Here's a question from John Wayland." That so excited my students, so we kept on typing. And our questions were being forwarded to Dr. McKay. My kids were so proud of themselves and I was mighty proud too! Chris Rowan and Linda Hamilton, two of our PTK advocates were there too! And in truth during much of our excitement , my students and I missed some of the answers to our questions. (But this time I videotaped the whole conference with sound so we could view segements of thise conference when calmer atmospheres prevailed). In the middle of all this we had our required October fire drill......my students did not want to leave but I said "we must go." When our class returned from the fire drill, I typed in a message saying" We had to leave the conference for a firedrill." The NASA team chuckled about this and shared this tidbit with the whole world during the CU conference. "It seems that one of our participatants John Wayland had a fire drill". As the conference was winding down, I also sent a message saying how the Internet enabled students here in the Shenandoah Valley to talk with and conference with one of the world's top scientists and through the Internet we are able to be part of the Mars"96-97 missions. Just before the CUSeeMe Conference ended David McKay said that he was most impressed with the knowledge and thought of all questions asked by the students!! He indeed felt honored to be a part of this CUSeeMe conference. I think this is due to the interest generated by the Passport to Knwledge Project and our Mars ONline Virtual Conference this past July. Anyway, we had a super afternoon! Marilyn Wall..... P.S. I am making each team a copy of our CU conference so they can share it with their parents. Just had a Super day!!!