NASA trip ‘out of this world’

May 14, 2008 02:11 pm

— By Philip Navarrette
reporter@trcle.com

Few Wheat Middle School eighth graders thought they’d be embarking on a monumental trip when they left for Houston last week to visit the Johnson Space Center. But for some, that’s exactly what they got.
“NASA was a great experience,” student Giovanny Pioquinto said. “It was out of this world.”
Since the fall, students raised money to send their class to the space center, eventually earning the $43,000 to make the two-day trip possible.
“We’re already planning it for next year,” said math teacher Leslie Spillman. “We’ll be raising the funds again.”
A plethora of activities were planned for the students on the trip, Spillman said. Students arrived at the site on May 5 and participated in robotics experiments before retiring for the night. The next day, they toured the area via a tram and viewed areas such as the rockets and mission control.
“It went really well,” said math teacher Leslie Spillman.
After working some experiments and activities at NASA, students headed to Houston’s Museum of Natural Science to take in more learning.
To pay for the trip, students worked as carhops at Sonic, held charity concerts and participated in many other activities.
In April it looked as if the school wouldn’t be able to come up with all the funds, so the board decided to help out. Luckily, the extra help wasn’t needed, Spillman said.
“We did not even have to use the money the school board set aside for us,” she said. “It’s awesome.”
For the amount of learning that took place, the trip was worth the price, Principal David Diaz said.
“This is what it’s all about,” he said.
Student Jasmine Hafford said she was thankful for the opportunity to participate in the trip.
“We didn’t all see it as getting out of school for two days,” she said. “We saw it as an opportunity to learn something new.”