Colony teacher headed to space camp

June 24, 2005

CASEY RESSLER/Frontiersman Valley Life editor

A Colony Middle School teacher is reaching for the stars this weekend, as she is going to be training at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala.

Dana Phillips, a science teacher at CMS, is attending the center as part of a scholarship program awarded through the Honeywell Educators at Space Academy program. Along with 143 other teachers from 17 countries and 32 other states, Phillips will go through many of the same training programs actual astronauts do in preparation of space missions.

"There is so much planned. I'm amazed they can fit it all into one week," Phillips said.

She found out about the program through a NASA mailing list, to which many teachers subscribe. Phillips applied for the scholarship, which is awarded through Honeywell.

More than 500 teachers applied for the program, according to a Honeywell press release.

Phillips will attend plenty of classroom sessions, which include discussions of lesson plans she can bring back to her classroom.

The teachers will also undergo space training and laboratory research. There is a high-performance jet simulation, scenario-based space missions, land and water survival training and a state-of-the-art flight dynamics program.

"There is a lot of really cool stuff planned. I'm looking forward to the labs and activities," Phillips said. "One in particular is crystallography, and we'll be studying how proteins crystallize, and dissecting DNA."

Phillips said she is very excited about bringing back what she learns, and turning it into something that gets students excited about science.

"At Colony Middle, we have a program called 'Connections,' and I'd love to create a special class for students, and get to do these fun activities with them," Phillips said. "The kids were excited to hear that I was going."

Mike Mering, with the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, said teachers benefit from the Honeywell scholarships, which cover the entire cost, from tuition and travel to meals and lodging.

"They learn a lot of things that they can turn right around and apply to their classrooms," Mering said. "She'll be going through the same things an astronaut will, and she can then relate that to her students to give them a feel for how important science is."

The Honeywell Educators at Space Academy program is part of the Honeywell Hometown Solutions, which is the company's community outreach effort.

It focuses on three main areas - family safety and security, housing and shelter, and science and math education.