A skeleton in a lab coat greeted students walking into the multipurpose room at Cerra Vista School this week where NASA employees talked about stars, planets and careers in science.
“They are the next generation so unless we give back to them, the space program is not going to continue,” Scientist Liz Blaber told the Free Lance.
As part of the hour-long presentation Wednesday, students learned the universe is 13.7 billion years old, more than 500 people have been to space and scientists use the same metric system they’ve been studying in class.
The three speakers shared their journeys to their current gigs with Scientist Joshua Alwood explaining how he watched spaceship launches from where he grew up in Florida and that fired up his career goals.
“That really captured my imagination,” Alwood said. “What took me to NASA is really my scientific interest.”
Blaber grew up in England near Windsor Castle and thought she’d become a professional food eater, a bus driver or a ballerina before she landed her current job.
“But then I went to school and I had some really great science teachers,” she said.
Aerospace Engineer Chris Barreras told students he found his career stargazing. Barreras was born in San Jose and attended Live Oak High School in Morgan Hill before he took his current position.
“When I was about your age, I used to look at the stars and go ‘Are we alone?’“ he said.
The goal of the event was to put “a face to a career as a scientist or engineer,” Alwood explained.
