It's wasn't a typical day for Red Bull Stratos medical director Dr. Jonathan Clark who normally teaches at Baylor College of Medicine and the University of Texas Medical Branch, not to mention his other contributions to space medicine. On this day, college students and medical residents were replaced by a much younger crowd - 4th graders from Twain Elementary School in Denver, Colorado. Fourth grade teacher Kevin Watanabe prefers to break away from the text books and bring science to life in the classroom. He gave his students a little assignment to read the Red Bull Stratos website. Game on! These kids were on a mission to learn as much as possible about a real scientific journey.
So here's Jon, a six-time Space Shuttle crew surgeon in Kevin's classroom holding a Russian space suit, talking about the history of space flight with a couple dozen little hands bursting in the air. Jon was blown away by the complexity of their questions - asking about pressure suits, what happens to the body without one, speed of sound, and "that brave guy" from Red Bull Stratos, Felix Baumgartner. Jon let the kids try on the space suit too. How cool! When I was in 4th grade nobody ever brought a space suit for show n' tell.
Adding to the cool factor, Kevin's class maintains its own blog which I'm sure will post something fun about Jon's visit very soon. If you're an educator looking for science lessons from this mission, send your emails here and I'll get your answers posted on this blog.
