The+Space+Race+and+Schools+p8

Space and Education Andrew



The space race changed the way we look at education today. With major changes to the education system and increased focus on schools, the space race really changed education. Educators and parents alike got worried so they decided to step up to the plate. Neil Armstrong had a big affect on the increased technology of computers. With NASA working harder to get people to space he helped the kids of the world to become more technological. This is just the beginning of how the space race changed the education system.

The space race affected the education system drastically. As soon as the space race started parents and educators got worried about the education system. Educators blamed politicians that they had become to lazy on the quality of schools. Basically the nations schools had become too lenient. In the late 1950’s schools started to focus on math and sciences instead of literature and language. Also, the education system decided to create more classes for the highly gifted students so that they could advance through school quicker and learn more. The American education was worried that the Russians had surpassed them in the education system and we stepped up our game.

In late 1958 the president of Harvard devised a plan to improve the nation’s public high schools. This plan required all students to get more credits in the math and science fields. It also required all students; bright, average and slow students to follow their own educational “path” through high school. Not in the Harvard plan but that was put in effect into many high schools across the nation was if you failed a test you received a detention. That forced many kids to try extra hard in school. From 1950-1959 America spent $20.9 billion on building classrooms and schools the nation. The biggest change was that they basically changed the whole curriculum which had not been done in years. The space program had a huge influence on the education system.

Neil Armstrong was born August 5th 1930 in Wapakoneta, Ohio. He was the first man to walk on the moon on July 20th 1969. He walked on the moon for three hours and planted the American flag on the moon. Before his fame he earned a scholarship to Purdue in 1947. From 1949 to 1952, he served as a naval aviator for the United States army. He flew 78 combat missions during the Korean War. During the Korean War he earned three combat medals. Before he was a famous astronaut, he was a test pilot for NASA. When the astronaut program was first announced, Armstrong discounted it, believing that the winged X-15 design and not the Mercury capsule was the better approach to space. After the first U.S. flight out of the atmosphere in 1962, Armstrong changed his mind and applied for NASA's astronaut program. In 1966, after, Armstrong made his first spaceflight as the commander of the Gemini-Titan 8.

In January of 1969, when the Apollo 8 mission failed Armstrong was the backup commander for that mission. So when Apollo 11 came around he was #1 on the list to get the job. Armstrong carried with him a piece of fabric and a fragment of a propeller from American aviators Wilbur and Orville Wrights' first airplane. Armstrong finally landed their craft to a soft landing with approximately thirty seconds' worth of fuel remaining. Almost 7 hours after they landed, he climbed down the ladder and took the first step on the moon. After this, Armstrong became the professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati, where he was involved in both teaching and research. He was a project pilot on many pioneering high speed aircraft, including an aircraft that went 4,000 mph. He has flown over 200 different models of aircraft, including jets, rockets, helicopters and gliders. He served as the commander pilot for the Gemini 8 mission, launched March 16, 1966, and performed the first successful docking of two vehicles in space.

Without the space race our education system would be stuck in the past. Neil Armstrong without knowing it gave millions of people world wide a major history lesson when he landed on the moon. Besides the history lesson, he increased the technology of computers and helped the students of today. Also by teaching at the University of Cincinnati he helped train many future astronauts of the future. Without if even knowing it at the time the Russians caused the United States to leap ahead of everybody with our education system.



Bibliography http://www.windows.ucar.edu/people/images/armstrong.gif

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