21 May 2006                      

Teachers are always looking for ways to enhance their lessons and to make learning fun and relevant for their students. As a science teacher, my idea was to use a space show theme to get students motivated about science. My show included a lot of my favorite experiments from my classroom. Over the years I have presented the show with my first, second and fifth grade students in Las Vegas, Guam, Hungary and London. I have also done the show at other schools without my classroom students and only used audience participation. The audience has been as large as five hundred students and parents, to as little as forty students. U.S. Military members serving overseas would always pitch in and help with the sound system and help with playing the aliens in the show (U.S. Marines and other air force officers). Requests from teachers to have a book about the show (so they could remember all of the experiments for their classroom) encouraged me to write a teacher’s manual for other teachers. Space Camp in Huntsville, AL, gave me a license to use their logos in the book to make student uniforms. Space Science and Other Things - Elementary (K-8) Interactive Space Show, ISBN: 1-4116-4764-6.

Currently, teachers from four schools in my area are using the book and will do the space show at their schools this spring. If you have the chance, please preview the book and let me know if you think it would help you. I'm not a professional writer, and would love to hear feedback from teachers or anyone. Please leave your comments in the guest book.