Page 113 - 1985

" Good day, and now for our top story.”

'Competing for a Place in Space' "

English/Spanish Teacher
Cheryl Blue

“ I tried out for teacher in
space to get over my fear
of h e ig h ts!”
E nglish Teacher
John Morrissey
E lectro n ics
Teacher
James Wolfe

gone, b u t I w ould have been students. Wolfe's project was
scared to d e a th !” Blue said to use a computerized radio
she w ould had to have tak en 'which -would allow him to
a tw o year leave of absence convert radio signals into
fro m RHS, one y ear fo r th e computer languge. He had
th o u g h t th a t th e exp erien ce m ission and an o th er year for already been working on the
of fillin g ou t th e ap p licatio n , press and speaking engage­ project and had perfected it.
to see w h a t m ig h t happen, m e n ts re q u ire d a f te r th e The computerized radio
w as a good exp erien ce fo r m ission. W ofe w as one of IS assimilates messages back to
h er. “ My fam ily w as so rt of N ebraska ap p lican ts given others by holding con­
glad I did it b u t in re a lity w e h o n o rab le m en tio n n o tice ferences around the country
w ould h av e had to m ak e fo llo w in g th e a n n o u n c e ­ through the radio-computer
som e c h a n g e s b e ca u se 1 m e n t of th e tw o s ta te transmission. Wolfe also had
w ou ld h av e gone to H ou­ fin a lists and a lte rn a te . his own HAM radio contact
to the space shuttle in 1984,
sto n .M (if she had been se le ct­ Wolfe and Blue both said and was able to listen to con­
ed) that the 15-page application
“ D ad, go f o r i t ! ” w as was difficult to fill out versations on the shuttle. He
W olfe’s d a u g h te rs’ rep lies to because of all the rough has also worked on robot,
fillin g o u t th e ap p lica tio n , drafts that had to be done computer and laser projects.
even th o u g h i t m e a n t before the perfect draft was Even though neither
p o ssib ly sp e n d in g a c o n ­ sent in. If the application were named state finalists,
sid erab le a m o u n t of tim e had any flaws it was quickly both agreed it was a good
aw ay fro m his fam ily if he discarded by officials who experience.
did m ake it. judged them. Using their in­ Nebraska's two state
Out of 3 9 ,0 0 0 possible ap­ telligence and creativity, finalists were Omaha Nor­
p licatio n s sen t to W ashin g­ they had to develop a project thwest's Roger Rea, a
to n by te a ch e rs n atio n w id e , which they would work on chemistry teacher and Lin­
coln East's James Schaffer, a
127 N eb rask a nam es w e re while in space and could
sen t b ack to th e s ta te to be then relate back to ther ear­ journalism teacher. Michael
P. Stedillie, a speech and
screen ed fo r th e n e x t c u t. thly students. Blue's project debate teacher at Scottsbluff
T h e tw o f in a lis ts fo r idea was to take photos Senior High was named
N ebraska had a lread y been while in space and then alternate.
chosen, b u t w e asked Blue if when she returned develop
she had been chosen fo r th e them into a bilingual
lit big p ro je ct, w h a t she w ould photographic journal help­
tl
ing to stimulate writing in
h ave done. “ I w ou ld have