From: "Fran O'RourkeHartman" <hart1200@spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov>
Subject: Mars kick off
Date: Tue, 12 Nov 1996 21:48:31 -0600 (CST)
Hi everyone, Well Thursday was our big kick off, it was a huge success. I invited parents and friends. We committed to learning more, math and science as we joined the Young Astronaunt program. Kids were very excited to pledge to learning. I used the Pathfinder video to focus attention on Mars, along with a Mars worksheet NASA used called Why Mars. I had students with their parents complete the worksheet and then put everything together in a class book. Great to have parents work side by side with their students. We also completed the first journal writing of what I know about Mars with parents at their sides. As well as what I want to know. It really hepls to get parent buy in. In fact a dad is bringing in a satilte dish for the live viedo, he is so excited, and hooking up our entire school. Grants - I just received 5 grants to work on different parts of this project, the first I call Pluto Walk, my students will design street signs with planet information, we'll have the signs made and place the signs on our sschool grounds at the correct scaled distances. It should be very neat. Then on to building rockets, we hope to launch Dec. 6th, right after Pathfinder. then we'll build rovers in Jan. using K'Nex. All in all we are excited and can't get enough time to do it everything. Have a good week all. Fran ---------- Fran O'RourkeHartman Email:hart1200@spacelink.msfc.nasa.gov