Astronaut Assembly Sparks Interest in STEM

My best friend, Ashley Dunn, happens to be a rocket scientist, something we both aspired to when we were younger, but I took the creative route to fulfill my passions for journalism and education, and she took the engineering route that led her to a career at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

She made a trip back to our hometown of Lake Havasu City, Ariz. before her wedding last month and hosted an assembly with an astronaut at Oro Grande Elementary School. The entire school got to video conference with Astronaut Tracy Dyson via Skype. The emphasis of this assembly was getting more students interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). You know it’s going to be a fun assembly when the principal comes out in costume. Principal Wolfe dressed up in a mock astronaut spacesuit, and the kids loved it.

Students asked questions and learned about the life of an aerospace engineer and an astronaut. Dunn talked about teachers who inspired her in school and her daily life as an engineer at NASA. Students were very interested in learning about how Dr. Dyson realized she wanted to be an astronaut. She said that her parents told her to keep a list of the things she liked and was interested in, and she revamped the list every few years. Dyson says she realized she wanted to be an astronaut when she saw Christa McAuliffe, a science teacher, in space. She realized then that anyone could be an astronaut, not just pilots. The kids loved hearing that.

If you’re interested in hosting an astronaut at your school, visit http://www.nasa.gov/about/speakers/astronautappearances.html.