The Weightless Flights of Discovery program is a headline stealer. It gets a lot of news coverage, especially with a major push for the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) fields today. Here is some of the recent print and television coverage of our WFOD.
Teachers Defy Gravity to Gain Students’ Interest
Click here to read the full article.
Zero-gravity is just amazing! Here is a picture that appeared in the Norwalk News (actually it is the picture used by Northrop Grumman for their official press release!). Follow the link to the story!
Also here is a video from the same news organization. Hang on and enjoy! (Unfortunately I cannot post it directly at the moment so follow the link to story and/or video)
For even more pictures check out the Northrop Grumman Foundation’s Weightless Flight of Discovery Facebook page. There are 145 pictures for your entertainment! I believe there are quite a few good ones of me too!
Wow! I have to take a deep breath as I sit down to write this post! Today’s Weightless Flight of Discovery experience was truly like nothing on Earth! I will have to give a better description of the day later, but here is the short story.
The day started sleep deprived as I had an impossible time trying to sleep. I was just as excited as any kid the night before any big event in life! I had to be up early and on the road to Greenwich where the all the other prospective “Zeronauts” were gathering to prepare experiments, get last minute training and eat the proper foods for breakfast. After some last minute directions and encouragement we made our way out of the hotel to get screened by TSA before boarding our bus to Stewart International Airport. This process was rather quick and then we left on the bus for the hour trek north. Upon arriving at Stewart we proceeded to the air carrier accommodating us and moved out onto the tarmac. We boarded G-FORCE ONE and got set up for the flight. We had a safety briefing once onboard and then the flight began. We took off from Stewart and flew out to the dedicated airspace, which was somewhere over the Atlantic south of Long Island.
Once we arrived in our airspace the fun began. We performed 5 parabolas before the first straight and level (Martian 1, Lunar 1, Lunar 2, Zero 1, Zero 2). What an amazing feeling it was to experience all that and 1.8Gs as well! Then we performed 10 more zero-gravity parabolas. It got better each and every time we got to experience many cool experiments and tricks. Whether trying to devour floating M&M’s out of mid-air with our mouths, trying the same with amazing water globules or the amazing acrobatics that put olympic gymnasts to shame it was truly an experience of a lifetime. Sadly, it was over all too quickly (for me anyhow) and we cleaned up all our experiments and made our way to out seats to return to Stewart. Then on the ground we took some group pics and boarded the bus for our return to Greenwich. After a good meal and nice ceremony we went our separate ways with smiles that could not be wiped off our faces! What a day! I will do my best to recap in much more detail tomorrow.
Thanks Northrop Grumman and Zero-G for a day that I will never forget!!!
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!
