Students from Edison and Roosevelt Intermediate Schools recently embarked on immersive field trips focused on Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (STEAM). Organized by Westfield Public Schools staff, both trips centered around space exploration.
Seventh graders attended Space Camp at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, where they took part in simulated missions and developed rockets and catapults. Eighth graders visited the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, with a private tour of the launch pads used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), SpaceX, and Blue Origin.
Before the trips, students heard from Roosevelt alumnus Jared Isaacman, nominated and awaiting confirmation as the next NASA administrator and well known as commander of the private space flight missions of Inspiration4 and Polaris Dawn. In a message recorded for the Westfield students attending the trip, Isaacman encouraged students to “look up into the stars and dare to dream the impossible.”
“The students were amazed by his influential words and even found Jared’s spacesuit on display at the Kennedy Space Center,” said Edison mathematics teacher Ryan Belline, who organizes the annual field trips.
The trips also included arts experiences. Seventh graders embraced the Music City with a line dancing lesson in Nashville. “The students were nervous at first, but quickly realized that sometimes stepping out of our comfort zones leads to the best moments,” noted EIS staff member Brittany Sapichino.
Eighth graders toured Universal Studios’ special effects department in Orlando, witnessing behind-the-scenes technology runs.
“One of the coolest moments was going into Universal Studios before it opened and watching the staff complete tech runs of their live shows,” Belline said. “The show director then talked to the students about how important each backstage person is to their production even though they are never seen during the actual live performance.”
EIS science teacher Allison Friedman summed up the trip as“absolutely inspiring, not only to be in the presence of real rocket scientists and to complete training exercises like real astronauts, but to watch these students work together, problem solve, and find awe and wonder in the science activities they were engaging in.”
For more information and to join the email list for next year’s parent-financed field trips, visit the 7th Grade or 8th Grade STEAM Trip portals, posted on Belline’s class website under the staff directory at westfieldnjk12.org/o/eis.
