Science is 11-year-old Cooper Rankin\u2019s favorite subject.<\/p>\n
\u201cI find it interesting how you can do so much stuff. I think it\u2019s cool that everything is made up of matter,\u201d said Cooper, a sixth grade student at Roy A. Hunt Elementary School in the New Kensington-Arnold School District. \u201cIt\u2019s really cool they\u2019re taking students from our school to see a NASA program.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cooper and 15 of his peers were selected to attend the Beating the Odds Foundation\u2019s annual Quarterbacks of Life\/NASA Research Challenge, taking place May 6 at NASA\u2019s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot a lot of kids get to do it,\u201d said Sodi Pitts, 11. \u201cI\u2019ll remember it, the stuff we did.\u201d<\/p>\n
With teacher Robert Towarnicki, participating students meet twice a week after school to prepare for the trip.<\/p>\n
They are studying NASA\u2019s Nancy Grace Roman Space telescope, an infrared space telescope named after NASA\u2019s former chief of astronomy.<\/p>\n
The telescope is in development and scheduled to launch this year or next.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the day, we\u2019re focused on academic content and helping students achieve growth,\u201d Towarnicki said. \u201cHere, we can take all of that learning and apply it from a different direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
On May 6, students will present their research, tour Goddard and learn from Dr. Charity Woodrum, a NASA postdoctoral fellow.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an opportunity for these kids to show excellence beyond the scope of a classroom,\u201d Towarnicki said. \u201cIt\u2019s academic enrichment \u2014 it\u2019s beyond the confines of traditional learning. We do a lot of teamwork and team-based research.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Building the Odds Foundtion is covering the costs for the day trip, with the district covering only transportation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want our kids to experience things and get chances they\u2019d never get to have,\u201d said Hunt Principal Jeff Thimons. <\/p>\n
Student Leo Dobies, 11, is looking forward to the trip.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think space is very interesting,\u201d he said. \u201cThere might be life on other planets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Towarnicki believes the experience will be enriching to the students.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope their takeaway is that hard work pays off,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they work hard and apply themselves, they can achieve something.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Science is 11-year-old Cooper Rankin\u2019s favorite subject. \u201cI find it interesting how you can do so much stuff.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":488985,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[79,193],"class_list":["post-488984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-science","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488984","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=488984"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/488984\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/488985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=488984"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=488984"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=488984"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}