Twenty-four Sweet Home students returned from Florida May 5 after participating in the Earth Shuttle program.
The group of fifth- through seventh-graders spent more than two years fund-raising for their trip, which included stops in Orlando and Tampa April 29-May 5.
The program is led by Lauri Carlson, a fifth-grade teacher at Oak Heights. It is open to any student in Sweet Home.
This year the students visited historic Fort De Soto and North Beach in Tampa. They dissected a dead shark and got to examine a variety of creatures they collected while snorkeling in the Gulf of Mexico. At Busch Gardens they got to feed giraffes and antelope from safari trucks on the savannah.
Students used investigative science, genetics and forensics to solve a mysterious incident involving Jack Hannah’s camp.
At Sea World they rode air boats, from which they looked for creatures in their water habitat and learned about the impact of non-native species on the ecosystem. They watched efforts to rescue, rehabilitate and release endangered animals such as the manatee and the gopher tortoise. They also got to hold a young alligator.
At Walt Disney’s Epcot Center students learned about physics and technology as they discovered how roller coasters and simulators work, and about biology as they watched new techniques of growing food without soil.
The highlight of the trip was a visit to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, where they saw an actual Saturn V rocket and learned about the history of the space program. After touring a life-sized mock-up of the space shuttle, the group got to see the space shuttle Discovery being prepared for its next launch.
Students who went on the trip were Connor Amundson, Samantha Ashlock, Matt Baird, Jadyn Baskin, Sheena Bradford, Tyler Collins, Taylor Conn, Michelle Davis, Megan Graville, Joel Ostrom, Josh Juza, Krystal Juza, Nate Melcher, Mariah Morneault, Trever Olson, Emily Peabody, Colton Schilling, Hailey Sears, Alan Shirk, Megan Stone, Rachel Warren, Will Warren, Kendra Whaley and Kyle Wodtli.