A Little Micronaut’s Space Adventure

On October 24, 2003 elementary age home educated students from Sequatchie Valley Preparatory Academy, along with a few of their other home educated friends took part in an exciting adventure in space! Well…we didn’t really go to outer space, but it sure did feel real! We all became Space Micronauts for a day at the UTC Challenger Center. What’s a micronaut? It’s a little kid’s version of an astronaut (grades K- 3^rd)!

Our adventure began by loading onto the Space Shuttle! Blast off came next and we were headed to the International Space Station to work in the space lab. Once we docked onto the Space Station, we had to pass through an air equalization lock before we could enter the lab. Once the light turned green we knew that we were in the safe zone to enter the lab.

We all went to our stations and began to work on our experiments in outer space. There were ten different stations in the lab and each micronaut team was assigned to work in two stations while in outer space. There was a chemical weigh station, a scientific instrument reading station, an isolation chamber and robot control station, a rock classification station, and lots more!

My favorite experiment was studying the moon rock magnetism. My partner and I had to wear arm gloves so that our hands could work inside the airtight glovebox contamination unit while we handled the moon rocks. We had to determine the magnetism of each rock using a two inch magnet stick! My partner had to determine the classification of each colored rock.

Later, after we returned from outer space, we made miniature satellites to receive and send pictures to outer space. We also learned about comets and even made our own miniature comets to take home! We learned so much about math and science on our wonderful adventure to the Challenger Center.

Our Astronaut Leaders from the UTC Challenger Center were incredible! They are so smart and know a whole bunch about Space! This means they also know a whole lot about math and science! They really made our adventure to space ‘come to life’!

The worst thing about the whole trip was when we had to leave! Nobody wanted to go! We had learned so much and wanted to learn even more! We loved these really cool ways to use our math and science skills that we had been learning at home!

...Hey Mom… when can we go back to outer space again?!!

Written by,

Bryce Young  (8 yr. old SVPA Student...with a little help from mom!)

Team A Micronauts:, Taylor Adams, Hannah Murty, Bailey Adams, Chance McDaniel, Sara Farlett, Mason Shelton, Madison Bennett, Sophie Murty, Brittney Blaiser, Bethany Rogers, Jacob Blasier, Maddy Denmark, Drew Farlett, Bryce Young

Team B Micronauts: Phillip Zeiser, Stephen Rickets, Mary Louise Sommers, Laura Zeiser, Daniel Malo, Jonathan Ricketss, Shelby Potter, Joe Potter, Josiah Wandell, Amy Malo, Elizabeth Tuggle, Caleb Schmidt, Zion Wandell