Helping NASA move forward

Coral Wilson

Students at Huntington Seacliff Elementary School were stumped by a

question posed by Principal Ann Sullivan during a morning assembly.

“Does anyone know where the name Columbia came from?” Sullivan

asked the students shortly after the tragic explosion of the Space

Shuttle Columbia.

No one could answer her, so she challenged them to find out.

When fifth-grade Gifted And Talented Education teacher Sharon

Weitz mentioned the question to her husband, he too became curious

and did some research, which she then shared with her class.

All shuttles are named after sailing vessels, he discovered. The

Columbia was named after a vessel that circumnavigated the globe, the

Columbia Redivivia. The translation of the Latin word Redivivia is

“revived” in English.

Weitz incorporated the discovery with a persuasive essay lesson

that she conducts regularly with her class.

“Wouldn’t it be neat if NASA was to rebuild the shuttle program

and call the next shuttle Redivivia,” Weitz asked her class,

beginning the process of developing a thesis statement.

The students were then instructed to write a persuasive letter,

proposing that NASA should continue its space program and suggest a

name for the shuttle that would replace the Columbia. She told her

class the new name could be anything.

“I gave them the opportunity to put in their own thoughts and

creativity,” Weitz said.

The students got to work.

“I know a tragic thing has occurred to your company, and you

should know that my family feels the pain,” 10-year-old Stephanie

Tran wrote in her letter. “It must hurt to have someone lost in your

family. NASA, you have become an immense part of my life.”

Matthew Deaner, 10, made his plea.

“Happiness and jubilance will spread on their face the day they

see the new shuttle with its name the Columbia Redivivia painted on

the side of a magnificent shuttle,” Matthew wrote. “Please don’t turn

me down, I think all Americans would confer with my choice for the

new shuttle.”

Paige Marks, 10, made a different suggestion.

“The Patriot would be a great name because it would remind us

about being true to ourselves,” she wrote. “The Patriot is the best

name in the world!”

Katie Morrow’s idea was to name the new shuttle, The Retriever,

meaning “to bring back,” according to the dictionary.

“After September 11th, 2001 my family and I realized that horrible

things could happen,” the 10-year-old wrote. “Sometimes, in my

opinion, the things that bring Americans together are not our

successes but out failures and hardships ... Never ever give up your

hopes NASA and follow your dream through and if it gets hard at times

... retrieve it!”

The class printed their letters on nice stationery and will mail

their letters to space agency officials at the Johnson Space Center

in Houston, who will forward the letters to Washington, D.C.