NEWS

IDEA Place celebration to be out of this world

RUSTON – Louisiana Tech’s IDEA Place and Planetarium will celebrate the 10th anniversary of Space Days the week of May 4-8 with exciting astronomical activities.

More than 2,000 students from across Louisiana are expected to attend. The IDEA Place will host special guests Congressman Rodney Alexander, NASA engineer Bob Armstrong and NASA communications coordinator Twila Schneider, who will speak Monday, May 4, at 9 a.m.

Students who visit during Space Days will be treated to a four-hour out-of-this-world experience, including IDEA Place interactive learning, a space and aviation presentation at Wyly Tower, a planetarium show and spacewalk, and other activities. Also included is a free hot dog lunch chips, cookies and a beverage.

Armstrong is the lead for outreach and education activities in area projects at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. His areas of expertise include engineering and business, internal and external communications, and interrelated systems and processes designed to enhance mission success for one of NASA’s highest priority projects, which is developing the next generation of safe, reliable and cost-effective space transportation systems for the human exploration of the moon, Mars and beyond. He began his NASA career in 1981 as a project engineer in the Systems Dynamics Laboratory.

Space Days is an excellent opportunity to promote the importance in the areas of math and science with an emphasis on Space Science and NASA.

Louisiana Tech’s SciTEC center houses the state of Louisiana’s only NASA Educator Resource Center and is a great resource for area teachers. They can come and receive materials for their classrooms such as lesson packets, posters, activity guides and more at no cost throughout the year.

For more information about the event, contact Keith-Vincent at (318) 257-2866.

Written by Elizabeth B. Christian