Next Monday will kick-off ciWeek 9 at Des Moines Area Community College’s (DMACC) West Campus. For the first time since the inception of Celebrate! Innovation Week, one of the noted speakers will be traveling northwest for a special presentation at the Carroll DMACC campus on Tuesday, March 6. Provost, Joel Lundstrom, says this is really an exciting opportunity for students and area residents alike.
Pyle has authored 11 books on space history and is also a journalist and filmmaker, having written produced and directed Modern Marvels and Beyond the War of the Worlds for the History Channel. Lundstrom says that there are a lot of interesting ties between Pyle’s work and Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) education.
Although we may have missed the prediction that by now everybody would be able to travel into space, this is not just some random topic. NASA’s most experienced astronaut was born in Mount Ayr, and Pyle may be able to provide a more detailed history about 58-year-old Peggy Whitson. She was the first female to command the International Space Station and holds the record, for all Americans and for women, on spending the most amount of time in space, recording 666 days total. Lundstrom adds that a fundraiser will also be taking place Tuesday as well.
With the recent privatization of space missions, the Mars projects, the classification and re-classification of Pluto and the overall renewed interest in outer space, this is likely to be an invaluable learning experience for all. Again, the ciWeek 9 presentation is open to the public and will get underway at 1 p.m. in room #142 at the Carroll DMACC campus.
