[Music]
>>Six o'clock,
time to get started.
>>Lynne?
>>Here.
>>LeeAnn?
>>Here.
>>We're going to do two legs on S106.
The first one is pointing at the main part of S106.
This is a star forming region.
[Music] [Aircraft Engines]
>> The EPOS.
When we get up to altitude,
everywhere you go this EPOS goes with you.
That's your emergency air, and for those with glasses,
you know to put the glasses in before you put the mask on.
[Aircraft taking off]
[Music]
>> My name is George Hademenos, and I am a physics teacher
at Richardson High School in Richardson, Texas.
>> My name is Judy Little.
I am from Omaha, Nebraska,
and I am a science teacher in a high school.
>> My name is Diane Watson.
I'm a special education math and science teacher,
and I teach at Richardson High School near Dallas, Texas.
>> My name is LeeAnn Vaughan.
I am a science teacher from Omaha, Nebraska.
[Music] [Radio chatter]
>> As a physics teacher, what I like to do is search
for creative and innovative approaches to enlighten my kids
on real-world applications of physics.
Although I'm a teacher, I'm also a student as well.
I love to learn.
I love to engage in these new learning experiences.
>> They're going to pore over a ton of data.
>> What kind of storage are you talking about?
>> The observatory is expected
to collect three terabytes of data per flight.
>> Science data is really the bread and butter of SOFIA.
That's what we hang our hat on.
>> Leg ten; right?
>> Uh-huh, yep.
>> Leg nine.
Yeah, we're starting at nine, and we'll do a --
>> All right, see. See the nine leg--to the nine leg's at six-fifty...
I have always been interested in science.
The beauty of having STEM opportunities is
that in addition to expanding our information about astronomy,
is also to learn about data collection
and mathematical calculations.
[Radio chatter]
>> This screen is giving us all the data.
So this is still telling us the time into the flight.
It's telling us longitudes, latitudes, timing, altitudes.
This is telling us the angle of the telescope;
it's telling us whether the telescope is still centered
in its bay.
[Music] [Aircraft flying]
>> How do you hook kids?
You know, what's the hook?
It's like, well, kids love to see things go kaboom.
>> Yeah.
>> Colliding galaxies.
>> Galactic collisions, baby.
>> My kids see that in a book, and they're like, "Hey,
we're going to learn about this?"
We've looked at galaxies colliding and then the stars
that are forming in that area.
We're looking at young or new stars
and there's an accretion disk or an area of material that twirls
around it, and then how does that affect or influence
that star's formation.
If I could talk to my high school students right now,
I would just say that if you look around, you're going
to see why hard work and science and math and all kinds
of opportunities out there are worth the effort.
>> I think that's a satellite.
For me, the bigger impact really is taking what I'm seeing as far
as science in action and just the process of science.
Another thing that has been really impressive is watching
the problem solving, watching teams
of people working together,
not just the scientists working together
but also the entire team on board.
I just think that's a really important lesson
to bring back to our students.
How do you go about solving a problem?
[Music] [Radio chatter]
>> So you have three different visions.
So they're still looking at these targets.
Here...here...here...
So even though we're nearly at the end of our journey,
we are still infrared telescoping right
up until we turn past Las Vegas and go home.
How many people at five o'clock
in the morning are still doing, with the same excitement
and tenacity they were doing at eight o'clock last night?
Awesome!
[Aircraft landing]