NASA AMES CERTIFIED...


Last Friday, I had the pleasure of being trained to become a Certified NASA AMES Instructor! It was an exciting experience, especially for those Librarians in the room who have long had a fascination with space. (My colleague informed me that she once dreamed of becoming an astronaut. I responded, "There's still time.")

As part of our official training, we were given experiments and hands-on activities to solidify the information (those NASA folks have a pretty good inclination of how learning happens--through fun, of course). In addition to the expansive knowledge throughout the day, we also learned about attrition with brightly colored Play-Doh and active Librarian role-play (I can still hear my colleague playfully yelling out her role of "ASTEROID").

Some participants also had the joy of inserting red hots into Rice Krispie treats and rolling them into tiny "moons" with chocolate powder for the "crust" (Did you know our moon has a core, similar to Earth's? Did you also know there's water on the moon?) Many trainees then took advantage of the unique opportunity to then "eat the moon" -- by readily consuming the sugary treats. Being an aspiring vegan, I opted to photograph the situation instead. I'm not sure who had the most fun!

Overall, a good time was had by all, we learned a lot, and we are all extremely grateful to NASA AMES and, especially, to our impressive instructor Karen for all the useful information. We have one final portion of training next month, and then we will all be certified--and able to borrow genuine moon rocks to show our library friends! Watch for my upcoming library program, "Is There Life on Other Planets?" There may or may not be aliens involved.

Meanwhile, check out this article about the planned "Lunar Library."
What would you send to the moon, for future intellectuals to locate and learn about humans?