Michael Petersen, Sue Colson, Ann Blackwelder, Weslyn Snuggs, Joanna Stanton, Megan McKnight, Stacey Anzalone, Randal Burris, Latta Knapp, Darren Nicholls, Randi Ansell and Patti Bost

Petersen, along with 11 of his colleagues are helping the more than 100 fifth-grade students at W.M. Irvin Elementary School learn more about the solar system. Their program titled, "Technology: To Infinity and Beyond. What's NXT?", allows students to participate in a fifth-grade learning day that emphasizes technology, science, music and research. Through the interdisciplinary program, students will create an original project that exemplifies the overall project objective: to understand forces and motion in technological designs. Students' choices for projects include creating robots using Lego NXT robotic kits, making a DVD movie about where they think space exploration will take us in the future, or developing an alien life form that is able to survive on one of the planets in the solar system. Students can also choose to build a space station, develop a podcast or PowerPoint presentation about the learning process, create music for the learning day event or analyze and display research findings. Giving the students the option to choose their project allows them to learn in the way they are most comfortable. This will help them to more readily embrace and understand the information and have fun while learning.