My Favorite Chapter

My first year of teaching began in 1998.  Since I taught freshmen, I was less than 10 years older than my students.  Most of the time, they didn't make me feel old because we had a shared experience of most movies and music.  That changed the first time I referenced the explosion of the Challenger.  They didn't know what I was talking about.  Granted, I was only in the 4th grade when the shuttle exploded, but it was such a big event in my life that it seemed strange that it wouldn't be in theirs.  As we talked about it, I realized that they were only two years old when it happened.  I started looking at history curricula and realized that there was nowhere in a student's education where they learned about the history of manned space exploration.

I decided to add this to my own curriculum.  I created a two-week unit.  We begin with a discussion about Sputnik and President Kennedy's "before this decade is out" speech.  I used a few episodes of the excellent HBO mini-series From the Earth to the Moon (Thank you to Ron Howard and Tom Hanks for making those).  We then turn our attention toward the possibility of putting a man on Mars.  My students must look at the risks, the benefits, the costs, and the logistical issues of such a trip.  They write a five paragraph persuasive essay on whether or not we should try it.

This unit has become a favorite, not only of mine, but also of my 8th graders.  It is a great way to return from Christmas.  They love the videos.  The idea of going to space just captures the imagination in a big way.  Even the day we talk about the fatal events of the Apollo 1 fire, the Challenger explosion, and the Columbia disaster, they are fully engaged with the material.  Just as it would be with anything else, I don't get them all interested; but there is at least one student every year who catches the bug.  They start learning about NASA and watching space documentaries.  They return from their DC field trip and tell me excitedly about seeing the Apollo 11 capsule at the Air and Space Museum.  Alumni often contact me when they learn of some space news or visit a rocket center.  It sticks with them more than any other unit I teach.

A lot of curriculum is dictated to us by our school, school system, or state.  Even the federal government now thinks they need to dictate our curriculum.  The response of my students to this chapter always reminds me to balance those dictates.  The decisions for my classroom should be made out of passion for learning, curiosity, and what is best for my kids, not just what is required.  If all my students needed was the book and a list of objectives, they wouldn't need teachers.