“They throw anomalies at you and you have to figure out what was wrong and work together to find a solution,” Brock said of the experience. “It let me be a student for the first time in a very long time.”
His efforts at the week-long camp in Huntsville, Ala. earned him the “Right Stuff” award given to one member of each class of 200 to go through the camp to an educator who portrays the right attitude and communication skills needed by an astronaut.
Camp participants—all middle school teachers—were assigned to teams of 12 to 15 members who spent the week taking part in a variety of exercises requiring teamwork, thinking skills and use of science and math. Brock said it was an ideal program for the current emphasis on STEM education combining science, technology, engineering and math skills.
“I learned more about STEM. That’s where my career is taking a turn toward,” Brock said, adding he had little training in engineering but his son works as an engineer. “The nice thing about it is we are all middle school teachers. I learned so much more about space than I ever thought I would do. I learned how much math is involved in space.”
He adopted the theme for the week at camp, “Dare Mighty Things,” into his classroom this year, hoping to encourage his seventh-grade math students to work together, take chances and do things they are not comfortable doing. He hopes to team up with science teachers in the building to expand what they can do together to impress on students the idea of working together.
“It was nice being a student again. What if we fail? We did fail at things and we learned from our failures,” he said.
Days were long at space camp, starting at 7 a.m. each day and going until 10 p.m. They did two missions in the module simulator, spent a day on a lake with simulated helicopter crash and working together to escape the water as well as working on trust issues. That included riding in the basket on a helicopter.
One exercise required each team to create some sort of shield that would protect an egg from a blowtorch for five minutes using various items selected from a choice of a bigger selection.
Another required them to come up with a water purifier since space travel requires cleaning and recycling of all water, including urine. He admitted his team was not successful at that one, showing a picture of their finished product, a murky brown liquid no one would dare drink.
Brock is in his 17th year of teaching at Talawanda Middle School after one year teaching at Tri County North and serving as a minister for ten years.
Space Camp, sponsored by Honeywell, drew teachers from 38 states and 22 countries. He was the only participant from Ohio. His roommates were teachers from Puerto Rico and Turkey, which meant that the overcoming obstacles included communication in the room with some language difficulties.
His connections from that week will continue, he said. He is already communicating with a teacher in Virginia about some way to have her eighth graders and his seventh graders work together on a unit.
“She is 20 years younger than me and we will be able to work together,” he said. “She is more tech savvy than I am.”
Participation in the camp this year will qualify him to attend an advanced camp next summer, which he hopes to do, but he will also be able to take part in conferences, including one in Houston in February.
Participants also heard astronaut Hoot Gibson speak at the camp as well as Ed Buckbee, the author of a book “The Real Space Cowboys” about training the first astronauts.
He sees the experience as a great asset to his teaching, making him more aware of how the use of math fits into other areas but also how his subject itself has changed.
“It was a great time. I learned so much. We are sharing lesson plans, sharing ideas with one another. The worldwide connection is a blessing in itself,” he said. “The math we teach is not the math their parents were taught.”
Eventually, he said, he hopes to be able to provide a Saturday math program so kids can have fun with the subject not tied to regular weekday classroom work.
“I love what I do. I was made to teach. Space camp energized me. I learned so much. I’m always learning,” Brock said. “It’s given me a new enthusiasm in teaching after 18 years of teaching.”
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