Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Space Exploration Day for Home School Students

The George Bush Presidential Library and Museum hosted a Space Exploration Day exclusively for home schooled students. My children and I (and 250 others!) had the great pleasure of attending today. The programs were fascinating and lots of fun!

We attended a class entitled "Reaching the Future", given by a NASA Aerospace Education Specialist, where we learned about the Constellation Program. The program is designed to send human explorers back to the moon, and then onward to Mars and other destinations in the solar system during the next decade.

A NASA space shuttle project engineer, specializing in space suit technology, talked to us about how space suits are designed and tested. We got to see and touch the parts of a space suit and we learned a lot of interesting facts about life as an astronaut!

A NASA mission control employee of Johnson Space Center taught us about the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle during his talk entitled "Help Us Take the Next Human to the Moon and Beyond". (In this class I learned that my son knew the names of all five shuttles...and I did not! ;-)

We also enjoyed a self-guided tour of NASA's mobile "Driven to Explore" exhibit where we touched a moon rock! And a self-guided Museum tour of the current display "Beyond the Moon: NASA's Continuing Mission" which will be at the Library through August 2009.

There was a small amount of time for a brief stop through the main part of the museum to learn a little bit more about the lives of our 41st president, George Herbert Walker Bush and first lady Barbara Bush. :-)


love this!

having a "chat" with President Bush :-)


taking a peek into the White House

an actual piece of the Berlin Wall

We are very blessed to have such wonderful educational opportunities so close to home. Please visit The George Bush Library to learn more about the George Bush Presidential Library and Museum and NASA to explore the wonders of our great nation's space program!