Out-of-this-world experience

NASA traveling exhibit visits Robert Taylor Elementary School

LOUIE TRAUB/VIEWAerospace engineer John Haynes, left, superimposes a picture of Robert Taylor Elementary School fifth-grader Micael Miciech, right, onto a space suit during NASA?s Vision for Space Exploration mobile exhibit, Nov. 6. The exhibit travels all over the Unite States for public outreach programs. Advertisement

Students at Robert Taylor Elementary School were taken to outer space earlier this month.

NASA's Vision for Space Exploration Experience traveling exhibit parked at the 144 Westminster Way school from Nov. 5-7, and classes were given tours by NASA staff.

"We travel all around the United States and do NASA outreach and education," said Shannon Ridinger, outreach coordinator for NASA.

The exhibit is housed in a 53-foot-long tractor trailer outfitted with interactive technology and features videos about the moon and Mars. The facility also was home to a moon rock, which students were able to feel while inside the trailer.

"I think this will be really, really fun. I love space and science," said Micael Maciech, a fifth-grader at Taylor.

Micael said that his class has been studying space, science and robots "so we'll have an idea of what we're going to see here."

Larry Pilon, a science teacher at Robert Taylor, said exhibits such as NASA's are good for students because it increases their interest level in a particular subject.

"What they're going to see today is the future," Pilon said. "The opportunities for them are magnified by these guys coming out here. They realize what I'm saying to them in the classroom is a reality."

Inside the NASA trailer, students were able to manipulate interactive maps of the moon and Mars to find out information about their surfaces and environment, and interact with screens in the second room, which gave the impression of walking on the moon's surface.

"I thought the whole graphic floor in the second room was amazing," Micael said.