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Local teacher travels to Europe to present paper

By Amy Karpinsky 4 min read

While he had traveled to places such as Japan, the Caribbean and Hawaii during adventures related to teaching, until recently, Brownsville Area High School science teacher Ken Harasty had not been to Europe. That changed last month when Harasty made history by being the first high school teacher to present a paper at the International Academy of Astronautics Humans In Space Symposium in Graz, Austria.

Harasty said he thinks Graz (the birthplace of Arnold Schwarzenegger) was a great place to start his experiences in Europe. “It is said to be the best preserved medieval city in Europe. Many of the buildings are from the 1400s and a few are from before that time,” Harasty said. “But it has a very modern side as reflected in the architecture of some of the art and culture centers, including the Kunsthaus, called the ‘Friendly Alien’ by the locals because of its unique shape and the glowing light show it produces each night,” Harasty said.

“One occurrence that meant a lot to me was that when the president mentioned my presentation, we were all standing in the lecture hall where the famous astronomer/mathematician Johannes Kepler taught until 1600, when he was forced to leave Graz due to his religion. I felt a connection with the long and involved history of astronomy, one of mankind’s oldest sciences,” Harasty said.

Harasty explained that he visited to go to the symposium, the costs of which were paid for by grant funding, as a result of another trip that he had taken.

Harasty said he has been interested in space science education for many years and found a large group of teachers with the same concerns at the NASA/NEAT workshop at the Johnson Space Center in Houston last year.

The group, composed of about 160 teachers from across the country, were selected by NASA’s education office to become astronauts but were all rejected for various reasons. Harasty said his vision did not meet standards and the 56-year-old said he also guessed he was beyond the normal age range of new astronauts. Members of the group were asked to become a new advocacy group within their education directorate, Harasty said.

In December, Harasty submitted an abstract of a paper he was working on about the lack of a formal relationship between space researchers and students and their teachers to the IAA. “I was a bit surprised when I received an e-mail from the IAA stating that my paper had been accepted for presentation,” Harasty said.

Harasty said at the conference, his 15-minute presentation, “overview and impact of methods used to link students, teachers and space researchers for the effective study of human space exploration” was well attended and well received. He said he was able to attend more than 40 of the 200 presentations given at the conference by research scientists in many subjects related to human space flight.

During the trip, among the scientists from universities from countries including the United States, Canada, Hungary, Italy, France, Slovakia, Sweden, China and Japan, Harasty said he was able to spend a good deal of time with Bob Thirsk, a Canadian astronaut. Thirsk is involved in the use of deep sea habitats as a simulation of living and working in space and is also interested in education and methods that can be used to improve space education in schools.

Harasty said he was grateful for the support of the Brownsville Area School Board, Superintendent Larry Golembiewski and high school Principal Richard Gates, who gave him the time off to attend during the school year. He has been asked to repeat his presentation in Atlanta by Dr. Marlene MacLeish at the Morehouse School of Medicine and may be asked to do a follow-up at the IAA 2007 symposium, which may be in Beijing, China.

This weekend, Harasty and three Brownsville Area High School students are at the 4th National ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) competition in which high schools and colleges from the United States and Canada compete. The competition is at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. “They’re going to give it the old try again,” Harasty said. He has taken students to compete in the competition in the past.

“My greatest wish is that other teachers in Fayette County will read some of this and decide to apply for some of the great opportunities that are out there, especially for science teachers,” Harasty said. Anyone with questions can contact Harasty at begin kenharasty@yahoo.com kenharasty@yahoo.com end

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