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CNN Saturday Morning News
Children Learn Lessons From Brush With Space
Aired May 10, 2003 - 09:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: We got more about space here coming up next. John Zarrella has the story of some other kids who learned a pretty valuable lesson from their brush with space. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARRY PERLMAN, SCIENCE TEACHER: We counted how many peas...
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ryan Burney was the principal investigator for his middle school's science experiment, and not just any garden-variety experiment either.
RYAN BURNEY, STUDENT: Basically, we're experimenting on the effects of microgravity on the growth of tin crystals.
ZARRELLA: The students at Pembroke Pines Charter Middle School were growing crystals in space, on board the shuttle "Columbia."
PERLMAN: This is going to be a little tricky.
ZARRELLA: Science teacher Barry Perlman involved 200 students in the project. Shuttles often carry student experiments. This was the Pines kids' time in the spotlight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And do we know the melting point of the container that the tin crystals were in?
ZARRELLA: When "Columbia" was lost, so, they thought, was their experiment. Until this photo appeared in "The New York Times" and another in "The Dallas Morning News." There on the ground in the parking lot of a minimart in Nacogdoches, Texas, sitting amongst other debris, was a box.
PERLMAN: Our tin crystals almost went 10 million miles around the earth, having originated here, and then wound up at a parking lot of a gas station in Nacogdoches, Texas. I mean, that in itself was an odyssey.
BURNEY: I stood staring at it. I couldn't believe that they found it.
ZARRELLA: Now, three months after the box was found in Texas, it has been opened at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA and Instrumentation Technologies Associates, the company that handled the packaging and manifesting of the student experiment, say the crystal growth project, along with a handful of other experiments, survived and may provide useful science.
For the students, the experience has taught them lessons not found in textbooks.
JENNIFER HEBERT, STUDENT: We've learned that for science projects, we got the best opportunity in the whole world, and to appreciate it, instead of saying, Oh, my God, I really don't care about this and something. But we actually got something so cool that nobody else can have.
ZARRELLA: And it has become crystal clear to these middle- schoolers that even in the darkest hours, not all is always lost.
John Zarrella, CNN, Pembroke Pines, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired May 10, 2003 - 09:42 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: We got more about space here coming up next. John Zarrella has the story of some other kids who learned a pretty valuable lesson from their brush with space. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BARRY PERLMAN, SCIENCE TEACHER: We counted how many peas...
JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ryan Burney was the principal investigator for his middle school's science experiment, and not just any garden-variety experiment either.
RYAN BURNEY, STUDENT: Basically, we're experimenting on the effects of microgravity on the growth of tin crystals.
ZARRELLA: The students at Pembroke Pines Charter Middle School were growing crystals in space, on board the shuttle "Columbia."
PERLMAN: This is going to be a little tricky.
ZARRELLA: Science teacher Barry Perlman involved 200 students in the project. Shuttles often carry student experiments. This was the Pines kids' time in the spotlight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And do we know the melting point of the container that the tin crystals were in?
ZARRELLA: When "Columbia" was lost, so, they thought, was their experiment. Until this photo appeared in "The New York Times" and another in "The Dallas Morning News." There on the ground in the parking lot of a minimart in Nacogdoches, Texas, sitting amongst other debris, was a box.
PERLMAN: Our tin crystals almost went 10 million miles around the earth, having originated here, and then wound up at a parking lot of a gas station in Nacogdoches, Texas. I mean, that in itself was an odyssey.
BURNEY: I stood staring at it. I couldn't believe that they found it.
ZARRELLA: Now, three months after the box was found in Texas, it has been opened at the Kennedy Space Center. NASA and Instrumentation Technologies Associates, the company that handled the packaging and manifesting of the student experiment, say the crystal growth project, along with a handful of other experiments, survived and may provide useful science.
For the students, the experience has taught them lessons not found in textbooks.
JENNIFER HEBERT, STUDENT: We've learned that for science projects, we got the best opportunity in the whole world, and to appreciate it, instead of saying, Oh, my God, I really don't care about this and something. But we actually got something so cool that nobody else can have.
ZARRELLA: And it has become crystal clear to these middle- schoolers that even in the darkest hours, not all is always lost.
John Zarrella, CNN, Pembroke Pines, Florida.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
