Lakota schools’ leader recently joined an invited group of educators and others to tour NASA’s Cape Canaveral in Florida and to watch a SpaceX rocket launch.
Matt Miller was the only school superintendent among the more than two dozen guests to tour the space center’s launch site and towering rocket assembly building.
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“The SpaceX and NASA opportunity was amazing,” Miller said. “There were approximately 25 of us and I’m guessing only 10–15 were in education. I was the only superintendent in the group. Others were teachers in school buildings or those that worked in various capacities at their State Department of Education.
“The rest of the group had a variety of backgrounds. One attendee hosts a show on Netflix and works with Nickelodeon. A few others worked for various tech companies.”
On Thursday, SpaceX successfully launched its cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS). After its four-week stay at the ISS, it will return to Earth with more than 3,000 pounds of cargo, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California.
Unfortunately, Miller missed the launch, which was originally scheduled for Wednesday but was delayed due to concerns about the weather.
It was a working vacation for Miller, who in this two-plus years as head of Ohio’s eighth-largest school system has won acclaimed for his expansion of digital and social media outreach programs to the Butler County community.
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Miller said he plans to use his trip as a teaching tool during the coming school year.
He toured the space center, met with NASA and SpaceX officials and experts and took part in a space mission news briefing.
“I interviewed many SpaceX and NASA employees. I’ll share the videos and pictures with our students in presentations throughout the year,” he said.
He said there are “a lot of applications for our students in terms of real world learning and careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).”
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