Students, teachers learn about NASA
By By Georgia E. Frye / staff writer
June 17, 2004
Sherrill Reynolds, information services coordinator at the Stennis Space Center, hopes she can persuade children to become scientists or astronauts.
She said she believes the next great NASA scientist may be right here in Meridian.
Reynolds, along with Paula Dauro and Jennifer McCutchen, educator resource center coordinators at Stennis Space Center, have been in Meridian the past week to participate in Meridian Community College's College for Kids.
McCutchen also is showing teachers how to instruct their students about space; in turn, they will earn three continuing education units for attending the classes.
Dauro said students are learning about the history of flight, which dates back to China in the 1600s when the kite was invented. She said she also teaches students about the development of the hot air balloon and NASA's hopes to one day land on Mars.
College for Kids is in its fifth year at MCC. Program Coordinator Jeanette Norment said the program has grown in size more than four times what it was in the beginning.
Norment said the addition of the NASA classes piqued a lot of people's attention this year. She said enrollment in the summer program has grown from 89 students to more than 400.
Kayla Blackwell, 10, of Stonewall, said she has learned a lot in the NASA classes. She said her favorite part was making her own space suit.
Students also are learning about how space shuttles take off, the kind of fuel they use and the different kinds of space shuttle missions.
Dauro said she thinks it's important that people realize the vital role that the Stennis Space Center plays in launching space shuttles.
She also said that the Stennis Space Center is the second largest NASA site in the country. The Kennedy Space Center in Cocoa Beach, Fla., is the largest.
Friday is the final day of MCC's College for Kids. The program will end with a closing ceremony at noon in the Khalmus Auditorium at Mississippi State University-Meridian Campus.
