Shuttle project launches Byram Lakes students into learning

STANHOPE - Byram Lakes Elementary School students and teachers climbed aboard the space shuttle as they launched into learning. Wayne McGarva, technology teacher; Andrew Vogel, sixth-grade social studies teacher; Elisa Nesnay and Ginette Garrity, fifth-grade teachers; and Dr. Richard Maisto, SEEK teacher, brought the students to new heights. Researching outer space and the building of the International Space Station was the theme for bringing the teachers and students together. Fifth-grade students studying the solar system brought together a menagerie of aliens to explain what life on different planets could be like. They used the Internet and more traditional research sources to become specialists with a thorough understanding of the composition of their chosen planet. Then they constructed a full-scale model of an alien from that planet. Each organism is an example of adaptation to its environment. Students starred as they presented their featured alien, using microphones to become better public speakers. The whole class learned about features unique to each planet from fellow students who became planet experts. Vogel’s classroom, transformed into “Mission Control,” acts as the center of communications, where students communicate over the Internet using audio and video feeds. McGarva’s technology classroom is the “International Space Station,” where anxious students work together to solve problems they encounter as they seek to repair a damaged section of the space station. Students use start of the art communications technology as they apply power tools and skills learned in class to execute designs sent from Mission Control. Students in Dr. Maisto’s fifth- and sixth-grade SEEK class explored robotics, built a model of the solar system, and designed and painted a space-themed mural on a wall outside McGarva’s technology room. The project came together with cooperation and support from teachers, students, school administrators and members of the community. Rowley Lumber and Fisher Lumber donated materials. The unique project was noticed and filmed by Classroom Close-up, N.J., produced by the N.J. Education Association and NJN Public Television. The show was scheduled to air on NJN at 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 12 and Jan. 16, and at 7 a.m. on Dec. 17 and Jan. 21.