District 2 kids chat with astronauts on the International Space Station
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (KRDO)-- On Monday, students in Harrison School District 2 got the opportunity to speak with an astronaut as part of an effort to get kids interested in "STEM" programs, meaning science, technology, engineering, and math.
Getting to talk to an astronaut is enough to excite most kids, but getting to talk to an astronaut while they're in space is something special that a group of kids in Harrison District 2 will get to remember forever. The project itself took around 9 months to happen.
"I've done that for Thrive Academy was this latest one. That's how I got involved in this. And they went and asked me if I go and help them out going," said David Molter, with Pikes Peak Radio Amateur Association.
Molter started his career more than a decade ago and said it was curiosity that brought him to this field. Now Molter, along with other community leaders are teaming up to make sure kids in southern Colorado get to experience the true beauty of space.
"It was really exciting. It was also, like, really nerve-wracking. Just like the feeling of, like, I'm talking to an astronaut on the space station," said Fiona Hull, a student who talked with an astronaut.
Some of the questions kids got to ask had to do with muscle mass in space, growing plants inside an aircraft, and why food tastes different in space.
"They see pictures of them exercising in space. And, you know, that's where David's question came from. They learned about just different aspects of life on the space station. They use the district's VR goggles and they got to be on the space station in that respect. And so they got to kind of simulate being on the space station themselves," said Dara Gardner, Science Teacher at Thrive Home School Association.
Monday's activity lasted about five to seven minutes until the astronauts were no longer in frequency. But Hull says that moment will be engraved into her memories for a lifetime.
"The whole idea is to get them interested in technology, whether it's computer science, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, any of the sciences to get in there and use their knowledge that they gain to you can make the world a lot better place through all that," added Molter.
