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Teacher: Reach For Stars

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By MEGAN HUSSEY

Tribune Correspondent

Published: October 5, 2008

PORT RICHEY - When Arturo Rodriguez was 8, he told his grandmother he wanted to be an astronaut.

She, of course, reminded him of his fear of heights.

Even so, Rodriguez never lost his interest in space travel.

Now, the Chasco Middle School science teacher's classroom walls are decorated with photos of space shuttle crews and blastoffs, and he's teaching his students to make bottle rockets.

Tuesday, though, he came closer to his dream than most.

Rodriguez was among 60 or so teachers selected to participate in the Weightless Flights of Discovery activity at Kennedy Space Center, hosted by Zero G Corp., the Northrop Grumman Foundation and NASA. The program normally costs about $9,000 per person, but a grant from Northrop Grumman covered the cost for Rodriguez and the other teachers to participate. The grant also included a video of his experience and related classroom lessons.

Wednesday, Rodriguez was back in the classroom, sharing what he learned with his students.

"In the near future we're going to need hundreds of thousands of engineers for projects that have already been approved," he said. "Our space program is going to be building a base on the moon and plans to go to Mars by 2530. To produce these engineers, we need to get students excited about the space program."

Rodriguez and the other teachers went up in a converted Boeing 727 and experienced zero gravity for 15 minutes. The experience enables Rodriguez to give students a first-hand experience of science.

"This is something I did, not just something I read about," he said. "It makes me more confident in my teaching."

Wednesday, Rodriguez showed students a video of his zero-gravity experience; including footage of their teacher being tossed through the air like a ball.

Students laughed and grinned during the video, yelling out questions - "Did you get sick?" "Did you do human bowling?" "How did you go to the bathroom?"

That was just the kind of reaction Rodriguez was hoping for.

"Most kids want to go up in space," he said. "With activities like this, we want to get them past the difficult math and science lessons needed to go into this type of career and get them excited about the prospect of space travel. I might be teaching future astronauts."

Rodriguez would like to participate in future space-based education activities and would even like to be one of the teachers selected for future space travel.

For now, though, he's just happy to answer his students' questions about space travel.

"One of the most frequent questions I get is, 'Was it fun?' I tell them, 'Yes, it was definitely fun.'"

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