Teachers reach for the sky in quest to learn

Three teachers from St. Mary's Visitation School in Elm Grove made up one of 14 teams of educators nationwide that experienced weightlessness at a special NASA program earlier this month.

The decision to travel to the Johnson Space Center in Houston for the five-day Reduced Gravity Education Flight Program was made in the name of providing a richer teaching experience for students, teacher Kathy Biernat said.

NASA commitment

NASA annually invests in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) educators in an effort to inspire students to pursue professions that could support the agency's future endeavors.

"We are excited that our program provides once-in-a-lifetime opportunities to inspire the teachers of budding scientists and engineers," said Doug Goforth, manager of the NASA program. "Through collaborative planning and teamwork, they gain useful skills that they can share with their students."

In fact, Biernat is a member of NASA's Explorers program, which offers continuing education opportunities for teachers. This past summer, she attended a program on radio telescopes held in California.

Team recruitment

For the February program, Biernat convinced fellow math and science teachers Kylie Daemmerich and Michael Falk to sign onto a team.

"I know they thought that we would never get picked," Biernat said. "We were all surprised and excited to go."

The five-day program included tours of mission control and the astronaut scuba training center. The main event was performing experiments aboard a modified aircraft that produces weightlessness for about 20 seconds at a time by executing a series of parabolas - steep climbs followed by a free fall done over the Gulf of Mexico.

"We performed experiments that we had talked about with our students," Biernat said, adding that one of those experiments involved hanging weighted canisters on a hacksaw blade to see how many times the blade swung depending on the amount of weight.

They experienced dozens of parabolas over the course of about three hours.

"We had a lot of instruction, and the flights included a flight surgeon and 10 to 15 other NASA employees," she said. "We had to learn the proper way to vomit, just in case. Not the most pleasant thing to prepare for."

Bringing the experience home

The teachers are now more prepared, she noted, to teach classes in which their students can get a firsthand account of the elements of space exploration.

"Once they knew we were going, we talked to them about what they wanted to know, and we Skyped with them while we were there so we could talk to them about what we were going through. They gave us toys so they could have something personal going along on the flights.

"Now that we are back, we are talking about the experience and incorporating what we learned in what we teach. We're pretty proud of ourselves."

On a personal level, the NASA experience helped Biernat cross off a "bucket list" item. She always wanted to skydive, but will gladly skip that now.

"I'm kind of a wimp," Biernat said, "but this was a great substitute."