Hello Kirk!
We made it through the first week back after holiday and the kids have really enjoyed taking turns logging on to your journal each morning and displaying and reading it through the TV sets in my room. You are really helping us increase our science vocabulary too! The recent posts of the ODEN are wonderful and I can't wait to let the kids discover them on Monday. We went back and forth between your outstanding audio post Friday and your journal entry of 01-05-08 "First Flight" on Friday so we saw your fly-by photos again of the ODEN and talked much about its mission and Lollie. You are so amazing! we had state mandated "bus safety and evacuation drills" ( you will have to be trained when you return!) and watched a bus safety and evacuation video before we went outside and practiced such on a real bus, but the point is, we had just listened to your audio file on helo safety rules and evacuation procedures, so your audio file was a perfect lead in to the bus activity; come to think of it you can just tell them "I have been through helo safety and evacuation training so I think that excuses me from bus evacuation training".
We will be benchmarking most of next week, I know you are sad to miss out on that, although if you sit completely silent in your room Tuesday-Thursday for 3-4 hours each day you can commiserate with us a bit! I am taking the kids outside on Monday and let them launch film canisters with sodium bicarb and vinegar so they they can have a bit of fun before all the testing the rest of the week.
The inflatable whatizit appears to be a moon habitat test. It reminds me of the Army's inflatable MAST units from the 60's although they were olive drabby.
It appears there was a range of emotions in the room when the canceled back-up flight was announced, or was I misreading body language?
I apologise for some of my fifth grader's posts; I have talked to them about framing their questions with at least a hint of science added and not to be verbose like me!
Fifth grade Mike Blanco Texas McClure