BY DAVE BERMAN • FLORIDA TODAY • October 20, 2010

KENNEDY SPACE CENTER — They live just a short drive from Kennedy Space Center. But, for many of the Volusia County eighth-graders there on Tuesday, it was their first exposure to the nation's manned-flight spaceport.

From Tuesday through Thursday, about 2,000 eighth-graders with an advanced interest in science from Volusia County's 14 middle schools will be visiting the KSC Visitor Complex as part of a new program funded this year by NASA.

The Volusia County Space Week program will be similar to a long-running program for Brevard County sixth-graders. The daylong visit for Volusia students included science demonstrations, meeting with an astronaut, riding on the Shuttle Launch Experience simulator and viewing a film on the Hubble Space Telescope.

"It was cool. I learned a lot of stuff I didn't know before," said 13-year-old Silver Sands Middle School eighth-grader Dalton Wells of Port Orange, after attending a talk by astronaut John Creighton, who flew on three shuttle missions.

Silver Sands Middle student Brandon Steinman, 13, of Daytona Beach Shores, said the day at KSC "taught me a lot about space," and spurred him to want to learn more.
Jennifer Taylor, Volusia County Schools science specialist, said if it wasn't for an $80,000 grant from NASA, the program would not have been able to start because of the funding crunch her school district faces. The grant helped pay for transportation and other costs related to the field trips to KSC.

She said Space Week is a valuable addition to the district's science curriculum, adding that she will be working to find additional funding to keep the program going. This week's program was sponsored by NASA, in partnership with the Visitor Complex and its operator, Delaware North Companies Parks & Resorts

U.S. Rep. Suzanne Kosmas of New Smyrna Beach, one of the speakers at the event, told the students that the so-called STEM studies -- science, technology, engineering and math -- will be key to the jobs of the future and in helping the country move forward through the 21st century. She urged them to work hard so they can have many options for the future, comparing it to a Chinese restaurant menu with lots of choices.

"Keep the menu open," said Kosmas, who helped push to expand the Space Week program to Volusia.

That's just what Bryce Beck of Port Orange wants to do.

The 13-year-old Silver Sands student said his first-ever visit to the Space Center "taught me so much, and I want to know more."