Elkhorn native, area teacher went aboard a flying telescope
By Jason Arndt
Staff Writer
Ashley Adams returned with more than just an invigorating experience as one of the newest members of the National Aeronautic Space Administration’s Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors Program last month.
As program participant, she went aboard a flying telescope to soak up new knowledge to pass along to her classes at Trevor-Wilmot Consolidated School, where she teaches seventh- and eighth-grade science.
Adams was one of nearly two-dozen educators selected for the 2016 Ambassadors program, which is designed to improve teaching methods and inspire future learners, according to NASA.
The program places a strong focus on STEM, or science, technology, engineering and mathematics, the NASA website adds.
In preparation for the program, Adams completed a graduate credit astronomy course and observed professional astronomers gathering scientific research on the flying telescope, known as SOFIA, or Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy.
SOFIA, a modified Boeing 747 jetliner equipped with a 2.5-meter telescope uses seven instruments to study objects at infrared wavelengths during 10-hour overnight science missions.
“The goal for SOFIA is that you bring it back into our classrooms, so my hope was to really just make my space science experience out-of-this-world amazing,” said Adams, who noted the program exceeded her expectations.
“That was my thought. What I didn’t realize is all of the different connections to all 10 of my units.”
“I am going to be able to (use) so (many) more connections that I never dreamed of, with all of these different (ones) that are going on,” she said, noting some are applicable to her biology, physics and chemistry units.
A stringent selection
Adams, an Elkhorn Area High School graduate, received her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Following collegiate studies, Adams took a position at Madison Metropolitan School District, where she came into got to know planetarium director Geoff Holt, who eventually became her partner on the SOFIA mission.
Adams, who said the selection process is strict, is still absorbing the idea NASA picked her among just 22 educators this year.
“It’s really humbling they picked me – that I had the qualifications and that it was highly competitive,” said Adams, who is just one of 106 educators selected in the four-year program.
“They saw something in me, and they said, ‘You’ve got to come on this with us,’” she added. “It’s been a long process to get up to this point, but I pushed myself, this was a big project. It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and sometimes, as a teacher, we need to push ourselves. We need to take that leap.”
Passing it on
Following the mission, Adams went right to work at Trevor-Wilmot, presenting her findings before a first-grade class last week.
From there, she conveyed the information to students at Wilmot Union High School and planned to share the research at a school in Genoa City.
“This was some amazing research, including how we can apply it to seventh and eighth grade science,” Adams said. “I have been in first-grade classes this week – How can we apply this in first grade classes?”
“It is just getting out the word of what NASA is doing – that is my job,” she added.
Hovering over the landscape
Meanwhile, as Adams learned new information, she took in the sites aboard the jetliner.
During some segments of Adams’ flight, she sat in the cockpit, where she recalled flying over the Grand Canyon and Hoover Dam, and watching the sun setting.
“That is pretty incredible,” she said. “The sheer experience of that was awesome. It was really memorable.”
Along with the memories of the landscape, the experience of witnessing professional astronomers conduct research has stoked her passion for learning to new heights.
“The amount of information and the people that I met were so intelligent, first off, that just to be around that knowledge and passion for a topic is invigorating,” she said. “It’s truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that I got to be a part of.
“It’s amazing. It’s humbling.”
