Out-Of-This-World: Public Invited To View Moon Rocks In Orchard

It doesn’t matter if she is teaching in her classroom, walking down the hallway or eating lunch. During the school day, one Orchard teacher is rarely ever spotted without a blue NASA drawstring bag on her back.

Although space travel fascinates her, that isn’t why teacher Tami Kuhfal wears the thin backpack. The reason lies within the bag’s contents.

The Orchard Public School currently has lunar rocks and meteorites on loan from NASA, and she is required to follow strict rules to ensure their security.

“They must be with me at all times or kept in the police evidence locker at night,” Kuhfal said. “I cannot leave them unattended. For any public events, I must have law enforcement present.”

So, when the rocks are not being used in the classroom, they are literally “on her person” at all times. Before school, Kuhfal stops by the Antelope County Sheriff’s Office to pick up the loaned items and returns them each night for safe-keeping.

The fifth and sixth grade teacher said she learned about NASA’s lunar rock loan program when she and fellow teacher, Lisa Cook, attended the space conference for educators at Kennedy Space Center in July. She took a special class while she was there.

“I had to take a course called Lunar and Meteorite Certification,” Kuhfal said.

The loaned items from NASA include one acrylic container with several samples of lunar rocks and soil and another of meteorite samples. Johnson Space Station also included a compound that replicates the lunar soil as well as two earth rocks that would be similar to lunar rocks.

She thought bringing the lunar rocks to Orchard would be an interesting way to teach students.

“I believed they would be an asset to our STEAM program and it would enhance the science curriculum in regards to the space unit,” Kuhfal said. “It also helps students understand the importance of math in real life applications.”  

She said there are numerous other benefits as well.

“It brings the moon to earth in a literal sense,” Kuhfal said. “We often feel distanced from space and the moon. This makes it personal and provides students a chance to see and hold something most adults do not.”

She said, in addition to looking at them and examining them, the students are going to do a lab on cratering, lava layering and exploring distances from earth, moon and planets.

“We are taking pictures from the International Space Station using the Sally Ride EarthKam,” Kuhfal said. “I hope to have a few good pictures for display at the open house. We are studying orbit, latitude, longitude and GMT Greenwich Mean Time.”

She said she has enjoyed the excited reactions from her students

“The most common question they ask is how valuable they are,” Kuhfal said. “My reply is, "They are priceless and invaluable." We no longer send people to the moon, if these are lost, a piece of our universe is lost.”

The lunar rocks and meteorites, sent from NASA’s Johnson Space Center Houston, will be on loan for a total of two weeks. Before they are returned, the public is invited to view them at an open house at the Orchard Public School. The event will be held on Thursday, Nov. 1, from about 3:45 to 6 p.m.

“We will have the lunar rocks and meteorites available for viewing and holding as well as some students’ rock collections on display,” she said. “I hope to have a couple of lab demonstrations for people to do as well, to see how the moon was formed and craters are created in a variety of soils.”

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