Schools

MAMS Students Get up Close with NASA Moon Rocks

Local students get an up close look at a national treasure.

A national treasure made an appearance in a classroom thanks to the combined hobbies of two teachers.

MAMS teachers, Patricia Hillyer, seventh grade, and Paul Loeb, physical education, gave students a closer look at outer space through the Lunar Rock Loan Program from NASA. The two teachers originally planned to show off Loeb’s extensive collection of space memorabilia to students while learning about lunar rocks and meteorites relationship to what we find on Earth.

“After he [Loeb] read about my adventure on the Vomit Comet, he told me how he was interested in the space program. I jumped at the opportunity to have him bring in his collection to show my students whatever he had. Then I found out about the Lunar Rock Loan Program from NASA,” explained Hillyer.

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In order to have these national treasures come to the school, Hillyer had to be trained by a NASA specialist on how to properly handle lunar rocks and meteorite samples. Another major part of training was how to keep the national treasures safe.

“The most important thing about the training was the security behind becoming certified to borrow the rocks from NASA,” explained Hillyer. “The samples must not be left with anyone other than the Lunar Rock Specialist and must be locked in a vault at night. Once I picked a date, I had to call the Aberdeen Police Department to ask permission to hand over these national treasures for safe keeping.”

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With the “okay” from NASA and the , Hillyer set up a time for Loeb to come in with his collection of original magazines and newspaper articles from the first manned space flight to the end for the Apollo missions. Loeb started his talk with the students about movies that started the interest in space, like 1951’s ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’. Loeb even explained how the movie was a reminder of how we all need to take care of the Earth. Loeb also showed the students how game manufacturers all got in on the “space race” and why the “space race” actually occurred.

“I found the students were very receptive to seeing all the old time games and lunch boxes,” said Hillyer. “They left the classroom with a greater appreciation of the past. They keep asking me, though, ‘when are we going back to space travel and the moon’?”

NASA allows teachers to borrow the rocks for a two weeks at-a-time. After Matawan-Aberdeen, the rocks will make appearances at a Howell School where Hillyer’s children attend and then to her son’s Cub Scout den.


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