around the uft

Ready for takeoff

Jun 5, 2008 3:51 PM

Queens teacher wins chance

Diane Weisen is doin’ the moonwalk. “Not in the Michael Jackson sense, but sort of in the Neil Armstrong sense,” the Queens teacher said, referring to the first astronaut to set foot on the moon. “You know, ‘One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind,” she added, citing the famous quote.

Weisen’s moonwalk, however, will be one giant boon for girlkind and boykind at PS 120 in Flushing.

Weisen is going into space — without leaving earth. The kids can hardly wait to hear all about it when she comes back in a blue flight suit from her stint at the U.S. Space and Rocket Academy in Huntsville, Ala.

“I’m still convincing my 2nd- and 3rd-graders that my feet aren’t leaving the ground,” said Weisen, who’ll be in seventh heaven learning all about rockets and doing simulated space activities such as the counterbalance moonwalk.

Weisen, who leaves for a week of space camp on June 17, is the only New York City teacher attending the educators’ program on a scholarship.

It was a prestigious honor for the UFTer who, in addition to her early-grade classes, teaches all grades in the school’s enrichment program, which she coordinates.

“About 1,000 people applied and 300 were chosen from 16 countries and 47 states in the U.S.,” said Weinstein, one of eight scholarship winners from New York State.

Weisen received an invitation to write about what she would bring back to the classroom after attending space academy. It was great news when she heard that she won the scholarship, sponsored by Honeywell Hometown Solutions in partnership with the academy.

Her ideas for lesson plans may alter after experiencing firsthand high-performance jet simulation, scenario-based space missions, land and water survival and state-of-the-art flight dynamics programs.

But one goal remains steadfast.

PS 120 has a large number of ESL students, she explains, many of whom are girls who come from very traditional cultures. Weisen wants to impart to them that girls can grow up to be anything they want to be, that they can shoot for the moon — literally, in this case.

Oh, and about that moonwalk.

“I won’t be totally weightless,” Weisen said, “but almost, experiencing a simulation of the moon’s one-sixth gravity factor — as opposed to the 100 percent gravity factor of earth.

“If you want to experience the closest you can come to weightlessness on earth, jump up in a fast elevator at the same time it’s dropping down.”

And yes, she adds, you can try this at home.

Want to join Diane Weisen in cyberspace? You and your class can go to her interactive blog at http://nasaspaceacademywithmsw.blogspot.com/. If you or a colleague is interested in applying for a 2008 Honeywell scholarship to space camp, log on to www.spacecamp.com/educators/honeywell/. For more about the U.S. Space and Rocket Academy, go to www.spacecamp.com/educators/gallery/.