BY SUE KIESEWETTER
Enquirer Contributor
UNION TOWNSHIP -- When Discovery lifts off this afternoon from Cape Canaveral, Staci Hathaway's fourth-graders at Hopewell Elementary School will watch in awe as they drink their Tang and munch on packaged ice cream as the astronauts do.
They will wear bell-bottoms and tie-dyed T-shirts to honor John Glenn and his first trip to space in 1962.
Shuttle missions have come and gone, but Mr. Glenn's trip is a novelty to the students. When he first orbited the Earth 36 years ago in Friendship 7, no one in their classroom -- including their teacher -- was alive.
Before the class began a three-week study of space, Danielle Coggins said she didn't even know Mr. Glenn was still alive.
"I thought he was dead, it was so long ago," said Danielle, 10. "I think it's exciting."
Matt Koenig said he was surprised to learn that when Mr. Glenn went up in space in 1962 there were only three networks.
"There were only three TV shows," Matt said. "Now it's all over the news."
Classmate Miguel Abad said he is glad Mr. Glenn -- "a real American hero" -- is returning to space.
"I've never seen anyone that old go up in space," Miguel said. "I think (his grandchildren) are a little bit scared. I wouldn't want to go up either. I would be afraid a meteor might hit me."
On the wall outside their classroom door, the students have put up a large display comparing America and Mr. Glenn in the early 1960s to the late 1990s. The children noted, for example, that Mr. Glenn's hair had a reddish tint when he first went up in space. Now it's white.
On the opposite wall, large intertwining circles are used to compare pioneering pilot Amelia Earhart's early flight to Mr. Glenn's space adventures. On each outer edge of the circle are facts about each. The students have found common factors between the two.
"They've really gotten into it," Ms. Hathaway said of her students' research, which included children's magazines, the Internet, encyclopedias and computer programs.
The historic nature of the trip didn't escape Kaleigh Dillingham, 9. "I like it because we get to live history and learn about him," he said. "We can tell our kids we were 9 years old when he did this."
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