The misadventures of Commander Merlin and the crew of RV-103
Monday June 23rd 2014

Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?

The RV-103 lecture series visited the elementary schools in Olean NY this week.  The 5th grade curriculum for NY schools has the students learning about space related topics starting that year and talk about an enthusiastic groups of kids!  The kids got to hear a presentation on “What is it Like to Work on the Space Shuttle: The Misadventures of a Space Cadet” and then participate in a Q&A session afterwards.

Credit East View Elementary
Credit East View Elementary

Fifth grade classes at Ivers J. Norton, Washington West, East View, and Boardmanville Elementary schools put Rocketman on the hot seat with some very good questions such as “How fast does the Earth rotate?”, “How does a spacecraft orbit and not fall to the Earth?”, and “What is plasma?”  Thankfully Commander Merlin was hiding in another room and was whispering the answers into Rocketman’s ear via a small radio after looking it up on the internet.

Commander Merlin sings a few tunes between questions.

People on the game show, “Are you smarter than a 5th grader” only have to face off against 3-6 fifth graders.  Rocketman on average had to face 40-60 fifth graders at each school.  Currently he is still in therapy trying to recover from the experience.

Previous Topic: Rocketman Featured in Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine

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