Jessica Saggio

FLORIDA TODAY

It’s a good time to be a fifth grader at Apollo Elementary.

Instead of a traditional classroom, filled with desks and chairs, students from the Titusville school do their assignments in front of the Hubble Space Telescope the actual space shuttle Atlantis.

“It takes nothing to keep their attention,” said Beth Faulkner, a science teacher from Apollo Elementary, as her students worked on a math assignment.

The students were studying at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex as part of a program called “Space School.” It’s a brand new 16-day venture that the district introduced this year. Apollo Elementary fifth graders are piloting the program, which KSC officials hope will eventually be open to all Brevard elementary schools.

Scavenger hunts, meeting astronauts, immersing in the history of space exploration and hands-on learning is what Space School is all about, explained KSC’s Alyse Cohen, who is the event specialist for education.

Through partnerships with Delaware North, Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex and the KSC Education Foundation, the program was made available to Brevard Public Schools for virtually no charge. The only expense Apollo Elementary has to worry about is the cost of transportation to and from the complex, said Faulkner, which is covered by federal funding.

FLORIDA TODAY visited Space School on Thursday and met up with the pack of students at the Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit. The group had just come from a chat with space shuttle astronaut Winston Scott.

The students – or “cadets” – filed into an area just beneath a full-scale model of the Hubble telescope. Each cadet wore a red Space School shirt and carried a notebook full of learning activities they would soon explore. The first assignment was an experiment with wind-up toy robots to see how they are able to move on different surfaces: felt, wax paper and sandpaper. Cadets had to measure in centimeters how far the robot could walk and how long it took before it tipped over.

“We’re going to measure in centimeters. Why are we measuring in centimeters?” Asked fifth grade teacher Kathy Marshall to the class. “Right. Because that’s what scientists use. They use the metric system.”

Students broke up into groups of two while Faulkner explained how the curriculum was developed.

“We started with the Florida Standards,” said Faulkner, who worked with two other teachers on developing the instructional materials for the program. “They’re still getting everything they get at school, we’ve just changed the classroom.”

Students read about space history, write about it, then see it with their own eyes, she said, followed by hands-on activities that make it all come to life. Writing, reading, math, arts and science are all integrated.

“It’s taken a trillion hours to get it just the way we want it, but it’s really neat,” said Marshall.

Space School piggybacks off the already-established Space Week program available to all Brevard six graders. The big difference is the curriculum and length of time. Apollo students visit KSC every day for the entire length of the 16-day program. They spend a little over half the day on the property, have lunch and then travel back to their school campus in time to do some work in the classroom and be present for dismissal.

The idea is to capitalize on Brevard’s proximity to these NASA resources and inspire a new generation of scientists and space enthusiasts. This was certainly the case, when FLORIDA TODAY joined Aiden Sperr and Ethan Pickett as they worked on their robot experiment. Both were jazzed about being at KSC and spoke pretty confidently about one day visiting Mars.

Sperr, 9, said he intends to design a golf course for Mars one day. Pickett, 11, hopes to play football there. The two explained it’s easier to catch a football on Mars because there’s little gravity and objects move slower.

While Space School is now only offered to Apollo Elementary — and one day to more Brevard Schools — it’s a goal to go beyond the county, said Adrian Laffitte, executive director of the KSC Educational Foundation. He hopes to offer the experience not only to other school districts across the state, but perhaps the country as well.

“The plan is to analyze the good, the bad and the ugly,” said Laffitte. “It’s something we could possibly market and package for schools outside Florida. We’re trying to come up with new ideas and how we can do them.”

Contact Saggio at 321-242-3664, JSaggio@FloridaToday.com or follow @JessicaJSaggio on Twitter.