NASA astronaut Barbara Morgan leaned into the projector beam to catch the question of a boy Wednesday afternoon at McCall Elementary School multipurpose room. As she hovered there straining to hear his soft voice, she became the essence of the message she wanted to deliver to her students.
A glowing swarm of galaxies photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope covered her face, shoulders and torso, transforming her into a vision of the universe.
Morgan returned to McCall Elementary School this week not just to teach about her August space mission far an hour but to deliver the message to students to reach to the moon, Mars and beyond.
One of the last photos she showed was taken from space of the moon hovering above a terrestrial dawn.
"This is where we'll be going. I hope you'll help us," she said, referring to a science project she encouraged children to undertake that involves some of the million seeds of the seasoning herb basil that were transported to the International Space Station with Morgan's mission.
The seeds endured weightlessness for two weeks before returning to Earth on Morgan's ship, the Endeavour. She asked the students to obtain some of the seeds and build a growth chamber to study how they will grow. Students' findings could help NASA scientists understand the feasibility of growing crops at future colonies on the moon and Mars.
Morgan entered the multipurpose to a chorus of cheers and apologized for being late, explaining she was with the preschoolers giving the man experience of floating in space.
"Are you ready to go into space?" she asked as she began her slide and video show. The sequence contained a clip of the launch of her flight in the shuttle Endeavour, after which Morgan asked, "Did you like launching into space?"
She was answered by applause, and grinned.
She did that a lot during her talk, and her enthusiasm was catching. Her pictures elicited lots of oohs and ahs, and at the end of her presentation more than half the audience jumped to their feet for the chance to ask her a question.
Morgan showed she had not lost her touch for reaching out to students and engaged them in lively discussion during her presentation. Every photo was an opportunity to teach that included instruction in the lessons for life, and she didn't miss a beat.
Morgan smoothly tied the value of teamwork into a picture of her mission's ground control crew and into a video clip of the shuttle landing, noting the cooperation involved in safely bringing down the ship.
Photos of the space station crew were a platform to reinforce the values of international cooperation and friendship.
Past was knit to present in a mini local history lesson as Morgan explained the Endeavour was named by McCall and Donnelly students years before the youngsters at the assembly were born.
