John Glenn Returns to Space

October 4-10 is World Space Week. October 29, is also and appropriately the 10th anniversary of John Glenn's return to space.

Nearly four decades after he became the first American to orbit the Earth, Senator John Glenn, Jr., was launched into space again as a payload specialist aboard the space shuttle Discovery. At 77 years of age, Glenn was the oldest human ever to travel in space. During the nine-day mission, he served as part of a NASA study on health problems associated with aging.

Glenn was one of the seven men chosen by NASA in 1959 to become America's first astronauts. In April 1961, Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin was the first man in space, and his spacecraft, Vostok 1, made a full orbit before returning to Earth. As a technological power, the U.S. was looking very much second-rate compared with its Cold War adversary, the Soviet Union. If the Americans wanted to dispel this notion, they needed a multi-orbital flight before another Soviet space advance arrived.

On February 20, 1962, NASA and Colonel John Glenn accomplished this feat with the flight of Friendship 7, a spacecraft that made three orbits of the Earth in five hours. Glenn was hailed as a national hero, and on February 23 President John F. Kennedy visited him at Cape Canaveral. Glenn later addressed Congress and was given a ticker-tape parade in New York City.

Out of a reluctance to risk the life of an astronaut as popular as Glenn, NASA essentially grounded him. Frustrated with this uncharacteristic lack of activity, Glenn turned to politics and eventually won the Senate seat from Ohio in 1984 and was re-elected three times. In 1984, he unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president.

Using the theme of exploration of space, assign students to open a special BookCart learning activity: "Exploring the Universe and Space."

BookCart learning activities provide a one-stop solution for teachers and students to research any topic/issue. Teachers can copy this ProQuest model and edit it quickly to add (a) additional resources, (b) student directions, (c) print resources, (d) a quiz, and (e) essential questions for critical thinking for students to address.

Teachers or librarians can copy and adapt this BookCart model and hundreds of other ProQuest models from ProQuest Carts collection. (Find out how.)

• Logon to the eLibrary Teacher Edition.
• Click the BookCart Admin link at the top right of the Teacher Edition.
• Click the ProQuest Carts tab.
• Type "Exploring the Universe and Space" in the Search box to locate it quickly.
• Click the Copy icon in the Actions column to the right of this title.
• Click Return to My Local Carts.

This BookCart already includes all the information that a student needs to complete the assignment. But, teachers can edit it to tailor it for their students.

To edit each CourseCart for your students to use:

• Click the first new BookCart Title with the prefix "Copy of."
• Delete "Copy of" and then type your name in the Author boxes and your email.
• Optional: Edit the existing directions for your students to use in the Description box.
• Scroll down and click Save.
• Return to My Local Carts.

Assign students to research exploration of space that is the 2008 theme of World Space Week. Students should complete a report of at least 150 words that cites at least three resources. Or choose a PowerPoint report of at least two minutes and seven slides. Students should address the following essential questions for critical thinking (you can create others) in their reports:

• Why is it important to study the origins and the evolution of the Universe?
• What are some of the most significant space projects to date and why?
• What is the role of particle accelerators, such as CERN, in helping to understand the Universe?
• Why does multi-national cooperation, such as the International Space Station, accelerate the exploration of the universe?

Search Pathfinder: Type "NASA and exploring the universe and space" in the Search box > then Type "NASA or space or explore or universe" in the Document Title box > Search > Click Sort by Date.

Use our custom ProQuest models for written or PowerPoint reports written and PowerPoint-style reports.

If you missed our last newsletter, ProQuest introduced the first collection of model BookCarts that address a specific course and the textbook used to teach that course, "U.S. Government and Civics." ProQuest calls this collection "CourseCarts." Here's the list of CourseCarts for U.S. Government & Civics.

Here's another opportunity for librarians and teachers to add these CourseCarts to their local school collection. (Learn more.)

• Logon to the eLibrary Teacher Edition to access BookCart Editor.
• Click the BookCart Admin link at the top right of the Teacher Edition.
• Click the ProQuest Carts tab.
• Scroll down list of Folders on the left, then click "U.S. Government & Civics CourseCarts."
• Click the Copy icon in the Actions column for the first CourseCart.
• Click Return to My Local Carts.
• Repeat the process until all CourseCarts are copied.

With editing, each CourseCart can include information that students can use to complete the assignment (example: write a report of at least 150 words that cites at least three resources and addresses each of the essential questions listed).

To edit each CourseCart for your students to use:

• Click the first new BookCart Title with the prefix "Copy of."
• Delete "Copy of" and then type your first and last name in the Author boxes.
• Type your email address in the email box.
• Type any brief STUDENT DIRECTIONS for the assignment in the Description box.
• Scroll down and click Save.
• Click the My Local Carts tab to return to your collection.
• Repeat the process until all CourseCarts are edited.

You can continue to use and share these CourseCart each year with minimal future editing.

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