Time allowed for science-education outreach
Tom Beach, left, a professor at the University of New Mexico, Los Alamos, and Robb Hermes of the Technology Transfer Division (wearing blue shirt) help students at Piñon Elementary School in White Rock with final assembly of their model rockets before launching earlier this week. Beach is helping student Jeremy Goettee. Other students shown are Sam Flesner and Dallin Stokes.
Hermes, Beach and other members of the Zia Spacemodelers Section of the National Association of Rocketry volunteer at local schools teaching children how to build and safely launch model rockets. The Laboratory allows employees to take time off from work for science-education outreach community service.
Bottom photo: Piñon Elementary students Chris Funk, Wesley Skidmore, and Eric Paige (left to right), watch their handiwork pay off as the model rockets they built lift off from the "launchpad" on the north playground area of the school. Yellow safety tape ensures that the students, teachers, and other observers are a safe distance from the launch. Inset photo: A student-built model rocket soars through the air. Some of the rockets which are made out of cardboard tubes and balsa wood, can travel several hundred feet before returning safely to the ground.
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