Happy Apollo 11 Day to those who celebrate it! July 20th, 1969
I’m not a science teacher or a history teacher, but I love the power of words and imagery and storytelling. I’ve always been fascinated by the space program and jealous of science and social studies teachers who get to teach it. I’m currently working on an essay about the Apollo program and being a first generation college student, and I have an idea for a novel about the discovery of Pluto.
We need to spend more time celebrating the effect storytelling has on our brains and our psyche. I believe it’s a valuable tool for writers, teachers, educators, parents, and everyone.
John F. Kennedy understood the powr of storytelling when he made the following speech at Rice University:
“But if I were to say, my fellow citizens, that we shall send to the moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of this football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented, capable of standing heat and stresses several times more than have ever been experienced, fitted together with a precision better than the finest watch, carrying all the equipment needed for propulsion, guidance, control, communications, food and survival, on an untried mission, to an unknown celestial body, and then return it safely to earth, re-entering the atmosphere at speeds of over 25,000 miles per hour, causing heat about half that of the temperature of the sun–almost as hot as it is here today–and do all this, and do it right, and do it first before this decade is out–then we must be bold.”
~John F. Kennedy, Rice University, September 12, 1962
If you’re interested in teaching students about the space program, here are a few resources:
JFK’s speech at Rice (from Historic Speeches, and amazing resource):
Four things you may not know about the first moon landing:
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48907836
Apollo in Real Time (I’m obsessed with this website)
ELA Source 
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