St. Bruno School in Dousman opened the Hendrick-Freres Innovation Center in November. (Submitted photo)
JAY SORGI
SPECIAL TO THE CATHOLIC HERALD
Many students get the chance to experience the opening of a science and technology center at their school.
Few of them get to experience it with an astronaut who flew around the moon.
“Everybody is born with talent, and the education you receive matches your talent with your career path,” Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise, now 91, told a group of amazed and inspired students at St. Bruno School in Dousman during the opening of the school’s new Hendrick-Freres Innovation Center in November.
Haise joined the K5 through eighth graders virtually that day, but while they sat inside this new STEAM (which stands for science, technology, engineering, arts and math) educational hub, he couldn’t help but share a sense of wonder at a career in science that played a part in changing the world.
“They were so excited just to be talking to an astronaut, and an astronaut that their parents had heard of or their grandparents had heard of,” said St. Bruno’s STEAM assistant and music teacher Lisa Werner.
“During my career, most days it felt like, am I really getting paid to do this?” he shared, adding that he got to experience a view of our planet that only 27 people have ever taken in.
“It was very dramatic to look back on Earth.”
Haise and teachers at the school conveyed to the kids how dramatic his mission became. Teaming with Jack Swigert and mission commander Jim Lovell, who spent his high school years in Milwaukee, Haise turned the near-tragedy of a partial explosion of their spacecraft — while en route to the moon — into a triumph of the human spirit against incredible odds.
“The whole program is called ‘A Successful Failure.’ The students kind of unpacked the idea of that in my classroom. ‘What is a successful failure? Why would we call a failure successful?’ That’s kind of an odd idea,” Werner said.
“It got them talking in class at least about moments that they’ve had, that they’ve learned from that at first take looked like failures, but then they learned something from it, and it changed the way that they looked at things or move forward with their lives. That important lesson alone was pretty epic for them.”
That conversation was the capstone of the celebration of the new innovation center that turned a storage space into a space for imaginations to fly.
“We do a lot of smaller STEAM projects throughout the year. We have STEAM clubs,” said St. Bruno middle school teacher Erin Mulligan. “This was kind of a logical next step for us to continue to encourage that sort of problem solving.”
The new center honors the late Kurt Hendrick, a former student, and former teacher Karen Freres, who attended the opening.
“(Hendrick) was always fascinated by science, and a great help to his classmates on science,” said Mulligan. “I thought that it was really appropriate that we do something science-related for him … he was always really interested in the sciences in general, and so I think that’s a great way to honor him.”
“(Freres) was passionate about faith being a part,” added Principal Mary MacDonald. “She more than almost any teacher that I think we’ve had here emanated this love of faith and prayer, and prayer for the students. She just really made an environment that was fostering learning and strong faith.”
Not just faith in God but faith in their own God-given abilities to solve problems, like getting a “lunar lander” to successfully survive a 100-foot drop and keeping an egg inside the lander intact.
“We invited the fire department to come and drop them from their ladder,” said Mulligan. “We actually had most of them survive. They did a very good job. I was impressed.”
Since the Apollo-centered celebration day, other projects have fascinated and expanded students’ minds and energy for the sciences.
“We got these mechanical computer devices called touring temples,” said Mulligan. “It’s kind of like a marble run, but it’s like switches, and so it’s supposed to model electron movement through a computer. And it’s really cool. It takes a lot of problem solving to get the marble to hit the next switch correctly. It’s not supposed to be free falling through there. They get very intense about it, and then they get so excited when they finally get it. I think there’s actual cheering.”
Those fun experiences are just the tip of the iceberg of how, in MacDonald’s eyes, science explains God’s hand in the world.
“It’s also opening up the students’ eyes to the world God created,” she said. “It’s kind of bringing those concepts together, learning God and science, which is a pretty tricky thing sometimes, to convincingly relate to the teachings about God.”
Including the ways the science experiences in the new Hendrick-Freres Innovation Center could launch discernment of these students’ callings that God may have in store.
“To the young people,” Haise said at the end, “I hope you have a good life and career ahead, and much happiness.”
