The Bay Net Photos by Anna Bedford

As the first Educator Astronaut prepares to launch into orbit on board Space Shuttle Endeavour, students are exploring space and learning about Endeavour’s mission much closer to home.

Barbara Morgan is NASA’s first Educator Astronaut, an astronaut who is also involved in k-12 education. Her mission is not only in space but also in the classroom, inspiring the next generation. Among Morgan’s crew, a select team of educators – including Benjamin Banneker’s Kim Weaver – and their pilot classes.

Kim Weaver is following the preparations for the June mission with particular attention, as she and her 2nd Grade class follow the shuttle’s program. Weaver’s class has been looking at the moon with fresh interest, learning about the atmosphere, and what it would take for life to survive away from the Earth. Recently the pupils have been immersed in the construction of their own lunar growth chambers, which, like those the Endeavour will carry in June, will grow basil in a self-contained ecosystem.

One of the highlights of the project for Weaver has been her training with the International Technology Education Association (ITEA), and meeting teacher and astronaut Barbara Morgan. She has also seen simulators and what the inside of the shuttle will look like. “The most surprising thing was all the Velcro,” Weaver recalled.

Weaver was selected to work with her class and write a program for other teachers to follow in the future. She and other teachers are writing middle and high school growth chamber units. Weaver’s unit will be part of a set of units that are also connected to a larger system of units and courses called Engineering byDesign(tm) (EbD(tm)).

Weaver has already written books about technology in the classroom, which have been published and used in other schools, and is excited to be working on the new project with ITEA, working with NASA. She’s not the only one – seldom has science time been greeted with such enthusiasm as it is in Weaver’s classroom, where the students jam down their hardhats (adorned with NASA signs), and reach for their safety goggles.

Space Shuttle Endeavour’s STS-118 mission is the 22nd shuttle flight to the International Space Station. It will continue space station construction by delivering a third starboard truss segment.