ST. LOUIS AMERICAN • APRIL 17 - 23, 2014 A13

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The St. Louis American is proud to partner with Hazelwood, Ferguson- Florissant, Normandy, and the St. Louis Public School Districts to provide this classroom tool for STEM education for students in 3rd, 4th and 5th grades, with content based on Missouri Learning Standards. CLASSROOM SPOTLIGHT SCIENCE STARS

Hamilton 1ST AFRICAN AMERICAN IN SPACE Elementary AND AERONAUTICS ENGINEER: School 5th grade teacher Guion S. Bluford Alecia Johnson Guion S. Bluford was born helps with a STEM lesson on November 22, 1942, in on moisture using the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. newspaper with students In 1964, he graduated Derrion Jackson, Aseani from Pennsylvania State Myles, Travion Royster, University with a degree in and Lativia Williams. The aerospace . In school is in the St. Louis college, he was a member Public School District. of the US Air Reserve Photo: Wiley Price / St. Louis Officer Training Corps. American After college, he used this experience when he served Teachers, if you are using the St. Louis American’s NIE program and in the Vietnam War as a would like to nominate your class for a Classroom Spotlight, please member of the Air Force. email: [email protected]. He won several medals, including the Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm. Bluford flew in over 140 combat missions. SCIENCE CORNER punch, and orange drink. This is In 1974, Bluford earned a master’s degree in aerospace Food In Space! quite a stretch from what was served engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology. on early missions. Worrying that Four years later, he earned his doctorate degree in the same Have you ever wondered what eat in space? astronauts might not be able to swallow in zero subject and was picked for the National Aeronautics and Space Handling food in space is tricky due to the effect of zero , most food was pureed and eaten from Administration Program. gravity. According to .gov, astronauts are allotted 3.8 tubes to avoid choking. When astronauts lost pounds of food per day. It is estimated that one August 30, 1983, he became the first African American to travel too much from these unappealing in space aboard the Challenger. He departed pound of that is packaging. Foods must be meals, the food choices were reevaluated. individually packaged and stowed. All from Kennedy Space Center in and completed several food is processed and precooked, Today, the food choices are expanding. experiments as the shuttle orbited the Earth 98 times in 145 so it is ready to eat. All items In 2001, astronauts enjoyed a vacuum hours and landed in California at Edwards Air Force Base. Bluford are freeze dried, dehydrated, or sealed Pizza Hut pizza. NASA provides went on to log 688 thermo-stabilized. Preparation is simple and astronauts with tortillas made by the same hours of space time usually involves adding water or heating. There company that supplies Taco Bell. Some and participated in is a fresh food locker for fruits and vegetables, astronauts have brought their own non- three other missions, but these foods must be eaten within the first perishable food such as Pringles and another aboard the two days or they spoil. Salt, pepper, taco sauce, hot M&Ms. In 2008, Sandra Magnus was the first Challenger and two pepper sauce, catsup, mayonnaise, and mustard are the person to cook a meal in space. She spent over an aboard the Discovery. condiments available on the space shuttle. hour cooking onions and garlic in the space station’s In 1993, he retired food warmer. Her entrée included mesquite grilled tuna in a from NASA and the On the Apollo 11 mission, astronauts ate two meals. One lemon garlic ginger marinade, and it was eaten from a bag. meal included bacon squares, peaches, sugar cookie cubes, Air Force and began coffee, and pineapple-grapefruit juice. The other meal Learning Standards: I can read nonfiction text to find work in the aerospace included beef stew, cream of chicken soup, fruitcake, grape main idea and supporting details. division of companies, including the Federal SCIENCE EXPERIMENT Data Corporation and Bluford on STS-8 in 1983. STS-8 was the Swing On A Pendumlum! Northrop Grumman. eighth space shuttle mission and the third He has also served light of the Space Shuttle Challenger. In this activity, you will learn about the laws of record how many times you go back and forth in one as president of the at work on the playground. You will learn about . minute. Aerospace Technology Group. In 1997, Bluford was inducted into Materials Needed: e Finally, you will pump your legs to move the International Space Hall of Fame. He said, “I felt an awesome the swing back and forth. Your partner will responsibility, and I took the responsibility very seriously, of Swing Set Partner Stopwatch • • • time you for one minute to record how many being a role model and opening another door to black Americans, Procedure: times you go back and forth. but the important thing is not that I am black, but that I did a good job as a scientist and an .” q Sit on the swing and have your Reflect: How does adding a force (a partner give you one gentle push. push, or a pump of the legs) affect the Learning Standards: I can read a biography about a person Do not pump your legs. Your partner frequency of the swing? How does this who has made a contribution in the field of will use the stopwatch to record how concept apply to astronauts, such as science, technology, or mathematics. many times you go back and forth in one Guion S. Bluford? minute. Learning Standards: I can follow MAP CORNER w Next, your partner will give you a strong push. Do not directions to complete a procedure. I can analyze the results pump your legs. Your partner will use the stopwatch to and apply them to a real life situation. Use the newspaper to complete these MATH CONNECTION Calculating Weight activities to sharpen your skills for the Weight is the measurement of the pull of gravity on an MAP test. object. The mass of an object doesn’t change; the weight, Activity One — however, does change. When an astronaut travels to space, Object Estimated Actual Weight On American Rights: Examine the change in gravity is the cause of the “weightlessness.” Weight Weight The ______current newspaper stories For this activity, you will choose 5 objects in your classroom. for examples 1. ______First, estimate the weight. Next, use the scale to calculate of rights being the weight. Now pretend you are on the Moon, where 2. ______exercised, upheld, or abused. Find as many gravity is about one-sixth that on Earth, and calculate what examples as you can (including photos), their would be. Record these weights in the last 3. ______and identify the appropriate right. column. 4. ______Activity Two — The Law: Find stories Learning Standards: in the newspaper about laws that are I can estimate and measure weight. I can calculate the 5. ______designed to protect us. Make a chart of effect of gravity on weight. each law and its purpose. Discuss or debate the fairness of these laws. Which laws (or rules) DID YOU KNOW? According to www.nasa.gov... are part of your everyday school experience? Are there other rules The Space Shuttle does Apollo 10’s that you believe should be created zero to 17,000 mph in command for school? To apply to be an Six Apollo A manned rocket 8.5 minutes. The speed module was called “Charlie Learning Standards: astronaut a pilot missions reaches the Moon of the gases exiting the Brown” and the lunar module I can use the newspaper to locate must have completed landed on the in less time than it Solid Rocket Booster was called “Snoopy.” Snoopy, President Obama signing 1,000 hours of flying moon: Apollo took a stagecoach motor is 6,000 mph — the Peanuts Comic Strip information. I can identify rights and laws granted to citizens and the Patient Protection and time in a jet aircraft. 11, 12, 14, 15, to travel the three times the speed of character, is the astronauts’ Affordable Care Act on March

16, and 17. length of England. a high-powered rifle. personal safety mascot. explain their use and purpose. 23, 2010. Content—Jennifer Wirthwein • Design—Beth Sharpe This special Newspaper In Education initiative is made possible through The St. Louis American Foundation and its NIE Corporate Partners: