April 14, 2008 — Hamilton Middle School science teacher Mary Patterson was recently selected as a 2008 Flight of Teacher Liaison by the Space Foundation—an international nonprofit specializing in space awareness activities, major industry events and educational enterprises that bring space into the classroom.

As a result of being selected, Patterson was one of 69 individuals chosen to participate in a professional development workshop in conjunction with the 24th National Space Symposium, held April 7-10 in Colorado Springs, Colo. She was one of only two Texans at the conference.

The Space Foundation’s Teacher Liaison program, now in its fifth year, selects teachers who actively promote space and science education in the classroom and the community. Those chosen for this honor serve as advocates for space science education, and conduits into their classrooms, schools and districts.

Patterson, who has taught for 25 years and at Hamilton for 16 years, called the three-day workshop “amazing.”

“I was eating ice cream next to (former Apollo 11 pilot) Buzz Aldrin at the exhibit hall,” Patterson said. “I got to meet Col. Eileen Collins, the first woman in a space shuttle, and she said she was intimidated talking to all the teachers, and we couldn’t believe it.”

Patterson also heard a speech from Dr. June Scobee Rodgers, the former wife of Space Shuttle Challenger astronaut Dick Scobee, who perished in the January 1986 explosion.

Patterson said she couldn’t have been happier to work with people in the space exploration industry and to get the “latest and greatest” to bring back to the classroom.

“One of the biggest takeaways was that all of these heads of industry, all the astronauts we met, expressed a gratitude to us, the teachers,” she said. “They acknowledged the importance of what we do in the classroom to continuing the space program in the United States. It was inspiring to be recognized by people of this caliber.”

Hamilton Middle School science teacher Mary Patterson, left, meets Col. Eileen Collins, USAF (Ret.), during the 24 th National Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo., last week. Collins became the first female space shuttle pilot in 1995 aboard STS-63, and became the first female commander of a U.S. spacecraft with shuttle mission STS-93 in 1999.

 Back to CFISD.NET