Due to the nature of this post dealing with child visitors, there will be no pictures.
Today we had a visit from the Delta Gamma Center for Children with Visual Impairments. Children ranging from five years of age to fourteen experienced both the Feeling the Stars Program as well as an adapted version of our Boeing Space Station Kickstart tour. The kids were great about jumping into the program. They answered my questions and asked a lot of their own and volunteered stories. The kids seemed to gain a lot from the tactiles as well as the show. The program runs smoother and smother every time as well!
The kids from DG also got to experience our Boeing Space Station Kickstart which is a program school groups can book. The program takes visitors through our space station exhibits, explaining how astronauts eat, sleep work and even use the bathroom in space. The kids all got to touch space food, try using tools while wearing spacesuit gloves, and they even had to practice using a space toilet (a chair with a cardboard target and a positioning device) just like real astronauts have to practice before going into space. The kids and adults alike giggled and cheered each other on or commiserated when a "mess" would have been made.
By the end of our time together a lot of the kids were exclaiming that they wanted to work for NASA when they grew up; as an astronaut or as a scientist or in Mission Control. I related to them that they should strive to reach those goals and that there is a woman right now working in the ISS Payload Mission Control in Huntsville, AL who is totally blind. I also reminded them that if they wish to acheive those goals that they need to study hard in school, especially in Math, Science and also in English and Foreign Languages (it is the INTERNATIONAL Space Station after all). Many of the kids exclaimed that they would. I hope they do. I hope to hear that they are working for NASA 10 or 15 years from now. I saw a spark in them that tells me I will.
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