This Is Why

An engineer sat at a table in the gym waiting to tell the elementary school kids how much he loved his job.

The youngest kids came first. The pre-K and kindergartners were pretty much lost. The first graders barely knew the Space Shuttle. The second graders liked the animated rocket launch but were more interested in the handouts. Sadly, he had to leave before the older kids would come by.

It's too bad the fifth graders will miss this, he said to the teacher running things.

She looked up and said, Can you wait a few more minutes? I can call their teachers. He said yes, and she ran off.

In moments, there were dozens of older kids crowding around his table -- three classes of fifth graders who seemed like giants compared to the other kids he'd seen. They were four or five deep in front of him, two deep on the left and right, and there were even a few standing behind him where they couldn't see a thing. They jostled for position. He felt like a rock star.

After showing the movie, one kid asked about an orbit, Does it have a lot of kinetic energy?

The engineer's jaw dropped. You know about kinetic energy? They all nodded and said, Yes! Their teachers smiled. So he took them on an energy tour of a space mission, from the rocket sitting quietly on the pad, to ignition and ascent, to once-around-the-world every 90 minutes in orbit, to reentry, at each stage asking where the energy was. And they talked about maps and orbits and ground tracks and about the funky things that happen when you draw a rectangular map of a spherical world, like Where is the north pole on this map? And they talked about Ares and Orion that will come after the Shuttle.

And then he stopped for a moment and looked at them all in the eyes.

Some day when you are in middle school or high school, you'll wonder, Why do I have to know this math? he said. And I want you to remember today. Remember the engineer who came to came to Sunset Valley and showed you why. He pointed to the ground track maps. This is why. And he pointed to the images on his computer screen. This is why. You can't do this without math. Study hard, and come help us build these rockets.

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Career Day at Sunset Valley Elementary
Austin, TX

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