TO BOLDLY GO INTO LEARNING : PUPILS USE SCOTTISH METHOD TO EXPLORE PLANETS, SPACE.

Byline: Alicia Doyle Daily News Staff Writer

Using intricate model rockets, cue cards and her public speaking charm, 7-year-old Becky Shay defined gravity in her own words Friday as part of a second-grade science project.

``Gravity is the thing that makes sure the objects you drop on the floor do not float back up,'' Becky said.

The Atherwood Elementary student then gave a brief lesson in Space Shuttle 101.

``The space shuttle is a thing that can fly in space and come back to Earth,'' the youngster explained to her class. ``The only thing the space shuttle can't do is fly fast enough to blast off into space all by itself.''

Becky was one of 18 students who created a variety of science projects - from miniature, handmade solar systems to scaled-down plaster craters.

For weeks, the youngsters have learned about space and planets through a teaching method known as the Scottish storyline.

The concept, developed in Scottish schools, revolves around creating a story and setting that enhances the teaching of math, science and language arts. It builds on the key principle that learning, to be meaningful, has to be memorable. And at the same time, it provides an opportunity for active, hands-on learning, said teacher Debbie Bloch.

``The goal is for them to gain knowledge of the solar system and enjoy learning at the same time,'' Bloch said. ``I've had parents tell me that their kids know more about space now than ever imaginable.''

Studying space as a catalyst, the youngsters learned about various scientific concepts and their relation to the solar system. Using a balloon, string, tape and a straw, second-grader David King demonstrated how a rocket blasts off into space. Dropping different-size marbles into a bowl filled with flour, 8-year-old Travis Ford showed how meteors create big and small craters.

Bloch used the storyline for the first time last year, when a parent of one of her students thought of an innovative way to approach teaching about space.

Thomas Bunn, who works for Rockwell International, was visiting the class when he told the youngsters that a UFO had crash-landed in the California desert. A seriously wounded alien, claiming to hail from the moon Io was found on board, Bunn told the youngsters.

He explained that because Rockwell was preoccupied with the NASA space shuttle mission to recover a Japanese satellite, scientists there didn't have time to repair the alien's spaceship.

Therefore, it was up to the second-graders to prepare a preliminary design for a new rocket-powered ship to transport the alien back to his home, the students discovered.

For this year's storyline, Bloch's new second-grade class was told that Rockwell needed a special space station to visit all the different planets.

Before creating their space station, the youngsters had to learn about space. That's where their science projects came in.

After cramming in some space facts, the youngsters spent weeks constructing a homeroom space station out of large cardboard boxes, black paint and plastic.

By conducting their experiments and designing the space station themselves, the youngsters have learned more than they would from a book alone, Bloch said.

``Active, hands-on learning is the only way to go.''

CAPTION(S):

2 Photos

Photo: (1--color in SIMI edition only) Becky Shay, 7, presented several NASA projects as part of her second-grade science project Friday.

(2) In a classroom at Atherwood Elementary School, pupils make space memorable by erecting a mock-up of a U.S. space station Friday.

Jeremy Greene/Special to the Daily News