January 25, 2015

As a child growing up in the early 1960's, Gary DeLeo was fascinated with the universe. And it was a good time to have that interest, as our country watched with wonder as President Kennedy spurred us to land on the moon.

 

"Those of a certain age" will remember a time when every space mission was front page news, and we watched every launch, live, on television.

 

Dr. DeLeo brought his passion to our first - fourth graders on Friday, in a special presentation that was designed to ignite their passion not only for the universe, but for the possibilities that they might create their own innovations.

 

In his energetic way, Dr. DeLeo - who works in the physics department at Lehigh University - shared fascinating stories about our solar system. And with video clips and models, he showed how the Apollo 11 astronauts made their trip to the moon in July 1969.

 

It wasn't all easy, he reminded us - there were numerous delays and situations that could have derailed the space program. But the scientists continued to work together to collaborate, imagine, and address the many unknown questions that arose.

 

As an example, he shared the dramatic story of Apollo 13 - the 1970 mission's lunar landing was aborted after an oxygen tank exploded. Working with the mathematicians and other scientists on earth, the astronauts returned safely to earth.

Apollo 13 Launch

 

Igniting our students' curiosity and interest with his stories, Dr. DeLeo encouraged them to 'not let this story end'. As he pointed to individual students, he noted: "You may go to Mars - you may go to the moon - you may cure a disease." He asked them to 'brain mail me a message' (his idea of how we will communicate in the future), with the details of their accomplishments. "Don't let me down! I want to hear you say, 'I did it'!"

 

Dr. De Leo then met with classes individually, where he fielded questions from our students, like these from our first graders:

 

-          Why was there ice on the spaceship?

 

-          How did the planets become planets?

 

-          Are there crystals on the moon?
 

-          How are the astronauts separated from the fuel in the rocket?

 

Next month Dr. DeLeo will return to make a similar presentation to our 5th-8th graders. The idea behind his visits is to ignite our students' own interests and curiosity as we head into two new initiatives, shared with families in a recent letter from Andrew Katz, our Associate Head for Academics.

 

He formally announced Innovation Week, planned for the week of March 2. Designed to introduce students to project-based, hands-on learning, we will be offering our 5th and 6th grade students a completely different experience during the week. Instead of standard courses, students will participate in one of four week-long courses: Building an Interactive Friendly Monster, The Science of Sound, Digital Game Design, and Engineering Ice Cream. We are working with
i2 Camp, which will also provide all necessary faculty training and materials, to deliver these courses. After a successful start this year, we hope to expand Innovation Week to additional lower and middle school grades.

 

Second, we are well into the final planning phases for the development of The Swain School's MakerSpace. A MakerSpace, or fabrication lab, is a workshop that provides the space and tools for personal digital fabrication. Essentially, we are designing a space where our students will learn to imagine new products and then be able to build them. We will teach our students to design using 3D design and CAD software, then enable them to build what they design.

 

These exciting initiatives will give our students the tools, time and space to imagine their own innovations. Who knows what they come up with? Maybe, as fourth grader Dean imagined, "We could build a spaceship or spacesuit so we could visit the sun."