FORT WORTH, Texas — At Fort Worth Academy, middle school science teacher Lauren Parker has a theory: given the right tools, nothing can hold her students back.
Not even gravity.
It’s a theory she was able to prove a few weeks ago.
“I was like, ‘wow, this is actually happening,’” said eighth-grader Emily Carmona.
“Nobody does this sort of stuff,” eighth-grader Abigail Dzurik said. “These are actually going to happen. This is actually gonna be something that we get to do.”
Parker got the students to believe in their dreams by believing in her dream.
To anyone who’s come through her classroom, it’s no secret Parker loves space.
“I tell the kids all the time, ‘I wanna be an astronaut when I grow up,’ and they kinda look at me like, ‘aren’t you already grown up,’” she said. “And I say, ‘oh no, you’re never really done growing up.’”
To keep them dreaming, Parker told her students about this program where they can design experiments and then have those experiments tested on a zero-gravity flight.
After brainstorming their ideas, a handful of their experiments got a ticket to fly, but more importantly, so did she.
Parker was one of eight teachers chosen to perform those experiments onboard.
During short moments of weightlessness, she put her students questions to the test. Questions like how does water move through lunar soil? How might pancakes cook in space? Or do mentos and coke react the same without gravity?
Back in the classroom, they analyzed the data. Years from now they’ll likely forget the results.
“Giving them those skills, the confidence to try something and see what happens and if it doesn’t work, ok try again,” Parker said.
Teachers pass on knowledge, but the best always seem to convey lessons in life.
“If I ever reach a point where I’m like, ‘oh, I can’t do this anymore,’ I think I would try to remember Mrs. Parker,” Dzurik said.
“I know that she cares a lot about the science but I can tell she cares a lot about us,” said eighth-grader Grace Hardman.
“Whenever people give you inspiration and give you hope, it really does just drive you further and further,” said eighth-grader Stone Terrell.”
And no amount of science can measure the gravity of that.