Daniel Runyon
06-28-2007, 10:19 AM
Just got back from my first launch for a classroom full of kids... it was awesome and the response was very satisfying. These kids were all second graders, and most were hispanic... I've been around a LOT of hispanic kids because of my wife who is half Peruvian (other half is Greek... pretty neat mix), and it was her summer school class that my son and I launched for.
I have been shocked at how much interest in space they have had before (at birthday parties I've gone to, taking along one of my books to pass the time and having them gather around me taking turns looking at every page!), and today was no different... there were several who really wanted to know a lot about the rockets, especially the Zooch Mercury Redstone.
We launched a Big Bertha, Mercury Redstone and an Art Applewhite saucer that was giving to my son at a SoAR launch by Jon Lawrence. They were really impressed and did a LOT of wow'ing and asking questions, and several were really wanting to build and launch some rockets themselves.
There was one kid in particular that really surprised me with his vocabulary, not only for someone his age, but especially a hispanic kid his age... most around here his age are simply nowhere near that advanced. I showed them a prototype rocket (my first scratch design) that I've been working on and he actually asked "Is that a prototype?"... I was floored! He knew a handful of "big words" and each time he would use one I would ask where he learned that and he would say "TV".
I have been shocked at how much interest in space they have had before (at birthday parties I've gone to, taking along one of my books to pass the time and having them gather around me taking turns looking at every page!), and today was no different... there were several who really wanted to know a lot about the rockets, especially the Zooch Mercury Redstone.
We launched a Big Bertha, Mercury Redstone and an Art Applewhite saucer that was giving to my son at a SoAR launch by Jon Lawrence. They were really impressed and did a LOT of wow'ing and asking questions, and several were really wanting to build and launch some rockets themselves.
There was one kid in particular that really surprised me with his vocabulary, not only for someone his age, but especially a hispanic kid his age... most around here his age are simply nowhere near that advanced. I showed them a prototype rocket (my first scratch design) that I've been working on and he actually asked "Is that a prototype?"... I was floored! He knew a handful of "big words" and each time he would use one I would ask where he learned that and he would say "TV".