SPACE CENTER HOUSTON
LEADS WWES 5TH GRADERS
INTO SPACE WEEK
HOUSTON — Three fifth-grade classes from West Ward Elementary School traveled
to the Johnson Space Center on Thursday, touring the rocket displays, mission control and
other exhibits.
This week, the school will host its 13th annual Space Week, with a dozen scientists
and other guests scheduled to visit, as well as a competitive rocket launch, a family
science night and other activities.
For fifth-graders at West Ward, October signals the culmination of an elementary
school experience rich in science, space and discovery, school officials said.
Fifth-grader Jennifer Ramirez, a West Ward student since prekindergarten, walked
out of the Space Center gift shop with a souvenir T-shirt, pleased with the long-awaited trip
to the museum of America’s space program.
“I thought it was really cool how they organized all this history together,” she said of
the series of spacesuits, rocket components and simulators that make up the Space
Center.
“This is a tradition at our school,” she said. “It celebrates NASA. All the teachers get
involved.”
Thomas Hart, in his second year as a fifth-grade teacher at West Ward, said the
school’s connection to NASA is what attracted him to the campus.
“We do experiments in class and coming here helps them see some of the concepts
we talked about,” he said. “They love the whole experience. This trip just gets them more
excited.”
Leading into Space Week, students design and build rockets, which they will launch
through air compression during a competition this week.
They also hear from professionals in space-related fields. This year’s schedule
includes Jeff Greason, CEO of Xcor Aerospace, a space transportation company.
“Space Week is a great opportunity for our kids,” Hart said. “It opens an area to them
they may not have thought about.”
Many students on the Space Center trip watched an entertaining presentation that
included an antacid-powered rocket, an expanding marshmallow man and nitrogenhardened flowers.
Some students also toured Rocket Park, with a Saturn V rocket that filled a
warehouse and authentic rocket engines from space program initiatives.
In the main visitor center, students tried out a series of medieval era ball bearing
machines made from drawings by inventor Leonardo da Vinci with similarities to spacesuit
ball bearings.
“I think it was really great,” Janeshia Anderson said. “We learned about space.”
Todd Martin / Special to The Killeen Daily Herald