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What does it feel like to be weightless, even if it's for 20-30 seconds at a time?
"You can't compare it to anything," said Lakeview Middle School science teacher Mark McCollom.
McCollom, Dan Wray and Roger Haeck found out about weightlessness firsthand Sept. 9 when they participated in Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Weightless Flights of Discovery program.
According to a press release from Northrop Grumman, the program is designed to provide teachers with tools and experiences they can use to inspire students to pursue technical and scientific careers related to space exploration. During the flights, teachers conducted experiments, which were videotaped, to demonstrate for students how the behavior of every day objects changes in an environment with little or no gravity.
The flight Sept. 9 consisted of 15 parabolic arcs, which caused all on board to be weightless or near weightless for about 20 to 30 seconds at a time. Ten of the arcs were at zero gravity, while five were at reduced gravity. The zero gravity flights are used by NASA to acclimate astronauts to weightlessness.
One of the experiments was "teacher volleyball." McCollom rolled up into a ball and Haeck and Wray passed him around.
"That was one of the highlights for me," said McCollom. He had no control of where he went, he was weightless and he couldn't push against anything to go in any certain direction.
He also said he was surprised at how easily he became accustomed to zero gravity.
In another experiment, Wray attempted to create a tornado in a tube. The experiment showed - at least with their liquid model - there is not enough gravity on the moon or Mars to support a tornado, he said.
McCollom tried an experiment showing accretion. Accretion is the idea that gravity will pull things together. It didn't quite work. Reese Puffs and marbles used in the experiment went in all directions, he said.
Haeck released Kool-Aid-colored water in the air and tried to drink it. Some of the water hit the seat before he could accomplish the feat.
By the end of the flight, Haeck said he was ready to be done and started feeling a little queasy. "Those guys were doing great," Haeck said of Wray and McCollom.
McCollom said the most exciting part of it for him was being able to share the flight with students and see them excited about it. "There were genuine questions, they were excited," he said.
Northrop Grumman also is providing each U.S. teacher involved in the program with a $250 grant to use in the classroom. More than 200 teachers are participating in the Flights of Discovery this year around the country, with only about 35 participating in the Cleveland-based zero gravity flight.
"That says a lot about Northrop Grumman, specifically, but also of high-tech companies that understand education is a place where they need to invest a little of themselves," said Wray of the grants.
Along with the grants, each teacher also got to keep their flight suits and had breakfast and lunch catered.
Many of the teachers who participated in the Cleveland program paid their own expenses to travel there and stay overnight. Some flew from as far away as New York or South Carolina.
"I just felt really honored to be a part of that group," said Haeck.
In 2003, Wray was one of 30 to 60 finalists, out of a field of more than 1,600 applicants, for the position of educator astronaut at Johnson Space Center in Houston. NASA announced the educator astronaut program in January 2003, receiving applications from science and math teachers across the United States. Wray submitted his application that spring.
Though Wray wasn't selected for that position, he continues to attend NASA workshops. When Northrop Grumman was looking for teachers for the zero gravity flights, they asked NASA for a list, which NASA provided. After Wray was contacted, he discovered there were some available seats left and was able to secure seats for Haeck and McCollom.
Each of the three teachers already enjoys teaching science. But participating in the Flights of Discovery excited them all over again.
"It got me more fired up about teaching science than I was before," said Haeck. "Right now it seems kind of surreal."
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