Last week Northrop Grumman’s Weightless Flights of Discovery made the Situation Room on CNN. It was a nice piece covering the program and the Washington, DC flight. As you may already know the main goal of the program is to give teachers an experience which will help them inspire their students to pursue STEM careers. You can view the by clicking the image below.
I just received an email from one of the teachers on my WFOD telling us the video is up! I wish I could embed it directly into this post, but it isn’t allowed. Here are the links to the three videos! I was part of the “gold team,” hence those gold socks! Pop some popcorn and enjoy these shorts (short videos for those who don’t know that term).
Thanks again to Northrop Grumman for making this experience possible. Watching these videos brings back that day and all the great memories!
I wanted to share some of the official photos from the flight with you. These photos capture the experience we all had on the weightless flight. I hope you enjoy them. All photos are copyright of Steve Boxall.
This picture shows the first people to board G-Force One on that lovely day. If you look closely, do you see who is first in line? – That is right! It’s me Mr. B!
After boarding G-Force One, we found our seats and prepared for takeoff. We had to have the standard (with some comical, attention-grabbing acting) safety briefing, as found on any commercial flight. The flight shortly after takeoff was quite rough due to weather, but we managed well enough. Once we reached our cruising altitude, the coaches then began to setup our experiments. They collected all of our shoes first though! Then we were allowed out of our seats and posed for the group picture seen below. This was taken somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean.
Next, came the frantic setup of experiments and even some baseline experimentation. My team sets up the mass vs. weight experiment in the photo below. Note: I will describe the experiment in more detail when I post the video of it in action.
Time quickly evaporated and we had to get into position to start the parabolas. The best part is just about to begin. The first set of parabolas (five in total) would be Martian 1, Lunar 1, Lunar 2, Zero 1 and finally Zero 2. That was quite a trip from Mars to the Moon twice and then on into zero-gravity, but it only took approximately 6-7 minutes to perform. G-Force One is fast!
The photo above shows us prepared to experience the 1.8 Gs on the way into the first parabola. We are looking up at the ceiling and focussing on one small point to limit the effects on our bodies. Get ready for Martian 1!
Martian Gravity is fun because you can do some very easy pushups! The gravity on Mars is 1/3 of the Earth’s Gravity. How much would you weigh on Mars?
Today marks the last Northrop Grumman Foundation Weightless Flight of Discovery. It is currently (at the time of the post) taking place over the Atlantic Ocean. The group of teacher participating today are from the Washington, D.C. area. This flight will bring the total number of teachers reached by the program this year to about 120. Countless students will be impacted and hopefully will see the benefits of science, technology, engineering and math in their lives.
Today, in the Danbury News-Times appears an interview with me, Mr. B, regarding my flight Tuesday! It is a nice article giving some of the background of the Northrop Grumman Foundation’s Weightless Flights of Discovery program and even some tidbits about me. No pictures, but hopefully when I get back they will run some! T-minus less than four days!!!
One of the cool freebies we received as part of this great program is a DVD entitled “Inspire Me!” Below is a preview of the video. The premise of the whole movie is following a dozen teachers before, during and after their WFOD experience. There are also cool interviews with Story Musgrave.
I tracked down this classic James Burke video clip showing some earlier days of weightless or zero-g flights. The method remains the same, but the conditions are nicer and you don’t need a leisure suit (sorry to those of you who don’t know James Burke for his ’70′s attire. I think this video is from days of Apollo.)
Hello everyone! I am fortunate enough to experience the same weightlessness that astronauts do in space later this month. Let me explain just how this all came about.
First, sometime last May I received an email explaining a program called “Weightless Flights of Discovery” and I was intrigued. After doing a little bit of research about the program, I thought: “Where do I sign up?” I applied to be a part of this program and few weeks later I received an email welcoming me to the program. Of course, I was stoked, but a lot had to be done as the program has four phases.
Phase I (Content Workshops) – We were to enroll in and complete an online professional development course through the National Science Teachers Association – Learning Center. This course (Force & Motion) took approximately ten hours to complete. It covered very familiar information, but even as a teacher there was still much new material to digest. It was enlightening and I developed a deeper understanding of many of the concepts I teach in class, such as net force, etc.
Phase II (Experiment Workshop) - We gathered at the Northrop Grumman facility in Norwalk last Saturday. This was a full-day of learning about the program: What it does? Why does Northrop Grumman do this? How is the zero-gravity experience created? What experiments can we do take this experiment back into the classroom? After checking in, we were fitted for a flight suit (which we get to keep!), had our picture taken and met the other teachers (29 other math/science teachers from Maine to New Jersey) who are particpating in this program. We answered the questions above and even more during the day. We also formed smaller teams (3-4 teachers) and began to develop ideas for our on-board experiments. I will fill you in on more of the details in the days to come.
Phase III (Zero-G Flight) – The best part by far! I am looking forward to 29 September 2009 as that is our flight day! I know I will be transformed into the child that lives inside me, but doesn’t get out as often as it needs to. We will be recording our experiments and the whole experience so we can share with our students and other teachers.
Phase IV (Inspire Others) – The most important part! We get to share all our first-hand experience, photos and video with our students and other teachers. Hopefully, students will be inspired to pursue careers in science, technology and/or math and have many unique experiences like this one!
Again, much more is to come!
