I just got an update from geocaching.com about the Geocaching Travel Bug that hitched a ride with astronaut Rick Mastracchio to the International Space Station. This is a great way to interest students (and us older folk who geocache about geography and science.
From the email:
Nearly 100 days have ticked by since geocachers cheered as a Travel Bug® rocketed toward the International Space Station. It’s in the capable hands of astronaut Rick Mastracchio. Like everything else on the space station, the Travel Bug has a mission. Mastracchio is using the Travel Bug to teach students back on Earth about geography and science. The Travel Bug’s page is the chatroom of a teacher’s or parent’s dreams. More than 1,200 posts have been logged so far, as classrooms (and even Geocaching HQ!) asked questions and Mastracchhio answered them from the weightlessness of low Earth orbit.
I remember the first time I met Bob. It was at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Show. He was just sitting under the wing of this Shrike with that big ol’ hat of his. I was just a youngster, but he spent the entire afternoon talking to me. Then he got up, told me he had to “do some work,” shoo’d me back behind the rope and went and did some of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen done in that Evergreen Shrike.
