The Daviess County Library in conjunction with the NASA@mylibrary grant invited NASA Solar System Ambassador Bob Riddle to Daviess County for a tour and assembly at four area schools on April 25. Library staff Allison Spidle and Brooke Lee accompanied Mr. Riddle on a tour of the county, during which they visited Tri-County, Pattonsburg, Winston and North Daviess school districts.
This website brought to you in part by the following sponsor:
Find out how to advertise here - Email us! [email protected]
In each district, the school gathered their middle school through high school grades for an assembly in the school gym. During each assembly, Ms. Spidle gave a brief presentation on student internships and fellowships at NASA, including opportunities available for high school students and high school educators. This was then followed by a presentation from Mr. Riddle.
Mr. Riddle, one of 450 NASA Solar System Ambassadors worldwide, hails from Lee’s Summit, and spoke to each group about his career as an astronomer. Mr. Riddle has worked on several NASA grants, including being one of 20 educators selected to the education team component for the Cassini mission to Saturn.
Mr. Riddle’s presentation included pictures of him at NASA labs in hazmat-like clean suits alongside famous NASA spacecraft such as the Cassini and the Sojourner, the first rover to go to Mars.
Riddle told the students that a career in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) can be quite varied as he has worked as a teacher, astro-photographer, researcher, magazine writer, planetarium director, field facilitator for the Challenger Project (NASA’s touring educational initiative sponsored by family members of those lost in the Challenger mission tragedy) and has even worked in conjunction with orchestral musicians in creating live music planetarium shows. He has traveled worldwide and has visited many of the best observatories and labs in the United States.
Mr. Riddle noted to the students that most senior NASA employees with whom he has worked, all have a great combination of left brain and right brain interests. For example, they may be an astronaut but they also have great interest in writing and photography. Or, perhaps, by day they are an aerospace engineer but they are also an avid poetry enthusiast. He encouraged the students to start thinking about a career in STEM and to not wait in preparing themselves. He told them to find something that interests them, find the place where one can study that, and start putting a plan in motion to get there.
The presentations were well received at each of the four schools. Upon returning to the library at the end of the day, Mr. Riddle told library staff how much he enjoyed his visit to Daviess County and how pleased he was to have spent the day back in a school setting talking directly with students.
Library staff thanked him for his entirely volunteer effort in reaching out to our area young people and opening them up to a world of opportunity they may have not yet considered.