Buchanan Elementary Students Win NASA Challenge
- Mar 26, 07
Buchanan Elementary 3rd Grade Students win NASA Challenge
Baton Rouge, LA-Third grade gifted students at Buchanan Elementary School have made history by naming a piece of the International Space Station. Frances Brady and Sue Wilson’s third grade classes entered NASA’s academic competition to name the NODE 2 module. Their winning entry made the students among the first people outside of NASA to name a U.S. piece of the space station.
The students competed against 2, 200 students in kindergarten through 12th grade from 32 states. Buchanan Elementary was among six schools to choose the name “Harmony”. Buchanan Elementary is the only school from Louisiana to place in the competition.
Part of the criteria for entering the challenge included the students creating a model of the NODE 2 with dimensions that have the same proportions as those of the real module. Students also created a Power Point presentation which depicted the calculated dimensions and included pictures of the building process.
The Buchanan students researched the purpose of the NODE 2 on the space station and wrote an essay supporting the use of the name “Harmony”. According to NASA representatives, Harmony provides a passageway between the three station science experiment facilities: the U.S. Destiny Laboratory, the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module, and the European Columbus Laboratory. A panel of NASA educators, engineers and senior agency management selected “Harmony” as the winning entry, because the name symbolizes the spirit of the international cooperation embodied by the space station.
The winning entries were announced at Kennedy Space Center in Florida on March 15, 2007.
• Paul Cummins' 8th grade class at Browne Academy, Alexandria, Va. • F. Brady/S. Wilson 3rd grade classes at Buchanan Elementary School, Baton Rouge, La. • B. Berry's 8th grade class at League City Intermediate School, League City, Texas • Bradley Neu's 9th grade science class at Lubbock High School, Lubbock, Texas • Russell Yocum’s 3rd grade class at West Navarre Intermediate School, Navarre, Fla. • David Dexheimer's students at the World Group Home School, Monona, Wis.
The Buchanan Elementary students will participate in a live video conference with a NASA astronaut at McKinley Middle Magnet School on, April 23, 2007.
Principal Brister in Washington, D.C., to Accept McKinley Middle School’s Second Blue Ribbon Award
On Tuesday, November 13, 2012, Principal Herman Brister (pictured, left) and the school’s Teacher of the Year, Lynn Williamson (right), were in Washington, D.C., accepting McKinley Middle Academic Magnet School’s National Blue Ribbon Award from U.S. Department of Education’s Director of National Blue Ribbon Schools Program Aba Kumi (center). The event, which recognized some 314 schools from across the United States, was held at the Omni Hotel. Click herefor story.
Subscribe to the EBRPSS eNews to receive our bi-weekly eNewsletter.
