Roberta Bondar: Stellar Inspiration (Duration 19:37) Twenty Five Years Ago, Roberta Bondar Blasted Into History As the First Canadian Woman in Space

IN THIS ISSUE Roberta Bondar: Stellar Inspiration (Duration 19:37) Twenty five years ago, Roberta Bondar blasted into history as the first Canadian woman in space. A research scientist in neurology, she used her education in the first International Microgravity Laboratory Mission on board Space Shuttle Discovery. Now, a quarter of a century later, she’s still flying high, reaching out to a younger generation to spark their curiosity in all things science and space. And she’s pursuing her passion of extreme landscape photography. The CBC’s Reg Sherren caught up with this busy lady to take a look back on her legacy.

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News in Review – March 2017 – Teacher Resource Guide ROBERTA BONDAR: Stellar Inspiration VIDEO REVIEW

Before Viewing

Note to teacher: Post the four quotations on large chart paper in four different spaces in your classroom. Divide students into four equal groups and ask them to bring a marker/pen and to record comments that they have in response to each quotation. Rotate students in a timely fashion so they have enough time to consider and respond to the four quotes.

I don’t think the human race will survive the To fly in space is to see the reality of Earth, “next thousand years, unless we spread into “alone. The experience changed my life and my space. There are too many accidents that can attitude towards life itself. I am one of the lucky befall life on a single planet. But I’m an optimist. ones. We will reach out to the stars. ”– Roberta Bondar, Canadian Astronaut – Stephen Hawking,” Astrophysicist Spaceflight isn’t just about doing experiments, I would like to die on Mars, just not on “it’s about an extension of human culture. “impact. – Chris Hadfield, Canadian Astronaut” ” – Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX

Viewing

1. How did Roberta Bondar demonstrate an interest in space when she was a child?

2. Name one of Bondar’s educational degrees.

3. The Challenger spaceship exploded just over a minute after take-off in 1986.  True  False

4. The space lab’s mission was to explore the effects of weightlessness on living organisms.  True  False

5. What is Bondar’s view on the importance of going to Mars versus further exploration of the moon?

6. What educational subjects does Bondar think are important to human development?

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MARCH 2017 – ROBERTA BONDAR: STELLAR INSPIRATION

After Viewing

Task #1 1. Make a list of 5-10 questions regarding space exploration that you find interesting. 2. Join a small group (no more than four people) and share your questions. Choose one of the questions to research. Explain why you chose this question and how you plan to conduct and share your research.

Task #2 Take a look! – Experiments to Explore Physiological Issues Facing Astronauts in Space The Educational Service Department of the National Air and Space Museum at the Smithsonian Institute has a “Destiny in Space” resource. This resource is a collection of information and activities about space exploration for grade four to grade 12 teachers. Each activity addresses a major challenge of exploring space. Below is a small selection and condensed version of these activities.

To view “Destiny in Space” in its entirety go to robertabondar.com/documents/DestinyInSpace.pdf

Your task: Find a partner and complete the activities. Be sure to take observational notes. Consider what each activity reveals about the biological challenges faced by astronauts.

How muscles respond in space Attach 0.5 kg weights to your arms and 1 kg weights to your legs. Exercise for about five minutes, choosing movements that work your arm and leg muscles. Make a note of each exercise (climbing steps, leg and arm lifts/curls, etc.). Remove the weights and do the same exercises again. Record your observations: What did you notice? What was different? What do you think happens to muscles in a weightless environment? How do astronauts cope with this challenge?

Keeping your balance 1. a) Try to stand on one leg for a minute. Try this six times. Record the time for each effort. Calculate the average time that you can stand on one leg. b) Repeat these steps with your eyes closed. Describe any movements in your body that you notice as you and your partner attempt this activity. 2. Hold your hand at arm’s length. Watch your fingers as you rock your hand side to side from the wrist. Start slowly, then speed up. What do you notice? Now hold your hand still and shake your head back and forth while watching your fingers. Start slowly, then speed up. What’s different in this case?

NOTE: In the first case, a tracking reflex in your eyes helps you focus on your fingers when they move slowly. This reflex can track up to 60% of movement per second. When the fingers move faster than that, they start to look blurry. The second case involves a reflex between the inner ear and eye. This reflex helps your eyes stay still even when your head is moving. This reflex can follow much faster movement than the tracking reflex.

What can you conclude about human balance and vision at the end of these activities? How do you think an astronaut’s vision and balance might be impacted in space?

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MARCH 2017 – ROBERTA BONDAR: STELLAR INSPIRATION

Where are your arms and legs? Brains depend on signals from nerves within the body’s eyes, muscles, joints, and skin to determine the position of our limbs. As strange as this seems, the brain can’t continually nor precisely determine where your limbs are without signals to the nerves from external stimuli such as visual objects, air turbulence or internal cues provided by muscle movement.

The experiment a) Ask your partner to sit with their eyes closed and legs crossed on a desk chair with wheels. b) Ask them to curl their hands into fists and place them on their knees with their thumbs pointing up. c) Push the chair so that it begins to slowly rotate. Change directions intermittently. Use smooth movements, be quiet, and don’t touch your partner. Ask your partner to move their fists to the left or right to show the direction they think the chair is moving. Stop pushing the chair after 10 turns, letting the chair slow gradually. d) Ask your partner to open their eyes when they think the chair has stopped turning. e) Record your observations and, if you wish, conduct the same experiment with you as the subject. Keep in mind that your ideas might be tainted by the fact that you just conducted the experiment on your partner.

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MARCH 2017 – ROBERTA BONDAR: STELLAR INSPIRATION

THE STORY Before reading 1. What three words come to mind when you think of people who are astronauts? 2. Do you think there are any stereotypes or assumptions about what type of person should be an astronaut? 3. What qualifications do you think astronauts need to have to be effective at Proving she is the best their jobs? Bondar says the inspiration to become a high achiever came when she was a Grade 8 student 4. What challenges do you think Roberta in Sault Ste. Marie. Even though she scored Bondar, Canada’s first female astronaut, highest in a test for would-be school crossing might have faced when she joined the guards, the honour went to the student who came NASA space program? How do you think second simply because he was a boy. Since then, she overcame these challenges? Bondar says that proving that she is the best and most qualified person at the challenges she takes While reading on is her number one objective. This became Three (3) colour activity: critically important when she decided to become  Use a highlighter to highlight Bondar’s an astronaut. intellectual strengths. Early life  Use a different highlighter to highlight Bondar’s parents, taught her to handle tools, experiences that potentially influenced her shoot guns, work a lathe and play sports when decision to become an astronaut. she was young. They encouraged her passion for  Use a third highlighter to highlight building rocket models and nurtured her personality traits that made her astronaut fascination with science by building a chemistry material. lab in the basement.

Highly regarded Bondar had a rocky time in high school: her interests were not in things like fashion, boys or Roberta Bondar once said there were only three dancing. Instead she was into sports, academics dangerous parts to a space flight: the launch, the and fishing. She was teased for her lack of touchdown, and everything else that happens in interest in women’s clothing styles and makeup. between. In addition to a keen sense of humour, Bondar remembers these days with frustration Roberta Bondar is a highly regarded astronaut, and hurt, saying, “I just felt people were turning scientist, physician, pilot, scuba diver and off me or turning away from me. My close photographer. friends were usually younger women on the basketball team because the ones who were older were into the prom, and I wasn’t.”

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MARCH 2017 – ROBERTA BONDAR: STELLAR INSPIRATION

Accomplished academic Discovery Bondar attained her first degree from Guelph in During the eight-day Discovery mission, Bondar agriculture and zoology and then completed nine worked close to 18 hours a day conducting 55 years of postgraduate work in experimental scientific experiments aimed at understanding pathology and neurobiology. Once she became a physical changes that occur in the human body qualified doctor, she earned a spot as a professor in the weightlessness of space. She did this of medicine with a specialty in neurology at while battling space sickness. Following in the McMaster in 1982. Just over a year after starting footsteps of Marc Garneau, who flew in the her job, she heard an ad on her car radio saying space shuttle Challenger back in 1984, Bondar that the newly create Canadian Astronaut became the second Canadian to travel in space. Program was looking for people. She immediately applied. She was one of six people Bondar continued to work with NASA studying selected from 4,300 applicants. She was 37 the physiological effects of space flight after when she was accepted into the program. returning from her mission. She worked with other NASA scientist to try to understand the The right stuff headaches, nausea and other physical challenges When faced with rumours that she was selected that astronauts feel in space. One explanation because of her gender, she fought back with the she helped formulate had to do with increased fact that she was the most qualified astronaut in pressure in the brain as a result of space travel. the program. Her fellow astronauts agreed and This scientific work has benefited future said that her qualifications went beyond mere astronauts and also provided insights into academics. According to Ken Money, the head treating brain disorders on Earth. of the CSA astronaut program, Bondar had “the Today, Bondar continues her work as a right stuff.” According to Money, “The right motivational speaker who urges young people to stuff is the ability to perform in spite of fear. work to avoid sacrificing their energy and spirit Roberta has enormous amounts of the right trying to fit into their peer groups. stuff…I’ve never seen her flustered or panicky—whether it’s the first time she’s seen a Listen to Roberta Bondar’s TED talk on change at particular experiment or the first time she’s tried youtube.com/watch?v=PUQ4H3Iy‐ps and think a flight simulator.” It was for this reason that about what goals you have set for your future. Bondar was selected to represent Canada onboard the space shuttle Discovery in January 1992.

The Canadian Space Agency requirements for astronaut applicants include being between 149.5 and 190.5 cm tall; weighing between 50 and 95 kg and having 20/20 or better vision in each eye; blood pressure not higher than 140/90 mm Hg measured in a sitting position; and normal hearing.

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MARCH 2017 – ROBERTA BONDAR: STELLAR INSPIRATION

After reading

1. Can you relate to Roberta Bondar? What is it about her story that appeals to you?

2. Would you ever aspire to be an astronaut? Why or why not?

3. How did Bondar demonstrate resilience? How do you demonstrate resilience?

4. Conduct research on Canadian doctor, former model and astronaut candidate Shawna Pandya. Compare Pandya to Bondar. What traits, experiences and qualifications do they share? How are they unique?

Sources: An odyssey in learning. (Dec 28,1992). Maclean’s. High-flying Roberta Bondar. (January 1993). Chatelaine.

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MARCH 2017 – ROBERTA BONDAR: STELLAR INSPIRATION

EXPERIMENTS IN SPACE

Experiments are at the heart of any space Task mission. What experiments do you think scientists might be interested in conducting in a 1. Form a group of three or four. zero-gravity environment in particular? 2. Create a prototype experiment for a space Keep in mind the effects that gravity has on mission. This experiment would focus on humans and other living organisms. Our potential ways to mitigate or minimize the muscles, bones and systems depend on gravity effects of weightlessness on the human to function properly. All biological processes are body, animals or plants. accustomed to gravity. Even a small variation in  Your first step would be to research a gravitation force can have an impact on the specific impact of gravity on a human health and functions of the human body and system or organ or plant system. other organisms.  Check out the image gallery of NASA to Astronauts grow between two and three inches inform you about current experiments that while in space. During weeks in orbit, the discs inspire you about potential experiments: in an astronaut’s spine continue to absorb nasa.gov/hrp/images moisture from the blood stream. With no gravity  Check out this diagram from NSBRI/NASA to squeeze moisture out, the discs remain plump, that compares how the bodies of male and making their spines longer, and this is why they female astronauts experience space flight: grow. nasa.gov/image-feature/gender-differences- Gravitational fields also affect spatial diagram-from-nsbrinasa orientation, head-eye and hand-eye coordination, 3. Share your idea for an experiment with your balance and locomotion. Astronauts are very class. Your class should provide a likely to experience motion sickness while in supportive critique of your ideas and suggest space. possible improvements to your prototype Recent experiments in gravitational biology experiment. have shown that changes in metabolism, immune cell function, cell division and cell attachment all occur in space. Microgravity impedes the development of bone cells in particular.

Two of the experiments on the space shuttle Discovery were created by high school students. You can read about those experiments, and all others aboard the Discovery, at Roberta Bondar’s website — robertabondar.com — click on the ASTRONAUT tab under the January 1992 Press Kit.

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