Pair selected to participate in Airborne Astronomy Ambassadors programViki Eierdam for The Reflector Last month, two teachers from Hockinson Middle School had the once-in-a-lifetime ex-perience of flying with a team of astronomers aboard NASA’s Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA). Through SOFIA’s Air-borne Astronomy Ambassa-dors program, Kim Abegglen and Anna-Melissa Lyons con-ducted two 10-hour missions aboard the world’s largest fly-ing telescope. Departing from Palmdale, CA, SOFIA would start out at an altitude of 38,000 feet soar-ing to an elevation of 44,000 feet by the end of each mission. These heights enable the craft to capture images and obser-vations impossible to collect from Earth. This wasn’t Abegglen’s first experience with NASA. In 2010, she was selected to participate in the Endeavor Science Teach-er Certificate Project (ESTCP) and is still a part of that online community. As a science teach-er, she qualified for a fellowship designed to improve the caliber

of teachers in the subjects of sci-ence, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Abegglen and Lyons, a math teacher at Hockinson Middle School, are in their seventh year teaching together and they de-cided to apply for the SOFIA program. Lyons said that the evaluation process was rigor-ous and, in the end, they were one of 12 teacher teams chosen for this year’s run and the on-ly teachers from Washington State selected to participate. Both teachers were required to take a graduate level as-tronomy course through Mon-tana State University designed specifically for the 24 SOFIA teacher participants. Neither Abegglen nor Lyons had ever taken an astronomy course but they were grateful for the chal-lenging content. “We really did learn a for-eign language and then went to a foreign country and under-stood what was going on so it was fantastic,” Abegglen said. On the night of April 30, after extensive safety training, both teachers boarded the retrofitted Boeing 747SP with scientists, military personnel and NA-SA employees. That first night, they viewed the storms around Jupiter and temperature differ-ences even from band to band but the unexpected imagery of

two of Jupiter’s moons – one of them being Io with its spectacu-lar volcanic activity – was par-ticularly striking. Lyons shared how contagious the energy on board SOFIA was. “It was amazing to see the collaboration and how excit-ed they were – even the pilot,’’ Lyons said. “The first night, he pulled out his cell phone and showed us pictures of things SOFIA had taken while he was piloting it. The entire team that runs SOFIA is very excited about the work that they do.” The two teachers were both impressed at how the telescope operators, instrument operators and mission director orchestrat-ed the siting of a target, which can only be seen in infrared us-ing stars and other known ob-jects in the sky.

Back on the ground, Abeg-glen and Lyons toured a re-search airplane that focuses on earth science missions, such as measuring fissures in gla-ciers over the South Pole, and the teachers spoke with a myr-iad of people connected with SOFIA. Since returning home, they’ve tried to impress upon their students the spectrum of team members necessary to suc-cessfully implement a project of this size and scope. From two-year degrees to four-year de-grees, administrative personnel to those with a PhD in astrono-my, the variety of backgrounds is diverse and no one person could accomplish it alone. “It’s concerning to us if they (our students) think or are led to believe that there’s only one

way to do things and they don’t see themselves as part of that vision,” Abegglen said. Their students certainly felt a part of this science project. It was because of them that Lyons and Abegglen set up Twitter and In-stagram accounts. They would comment on their teachers’ up-dates and decorated the class-rooms for their return, as well. The two also came back with some new friendships, which is an encouraged aspect of SO-FIA. They connected with the Oregon team – teachers Robert Black and Dave Bloomsness – and intend to continue to part-ner with them via e-mail con-versations to bring new ideas to the classroom. Another objective of the pro-gram is for participants to re-turn to their community excited

to share what they experienced and extend STEM-enrichment activities to their circle of in-fluence. As such, an assembly for colleagues is being orga-nized and a more interactive se-ries of family nights is also be-ing planned. After their experience, the night sky looks a whole lot different. “When we were taking the astronomy course. it was kind of hard to wrap my head around light years,” Lyons said. “(On SOFIA I was thinking) the light I’m looking at left that star a very, very, very long time ago and it really is amazing to see and think about.” For more information about SOFIA, visit www.nasa.gov/sofia.

BGSD nurse raises awareness

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Fundraising effort ends with June 21 event in PortlandViki Eierdam for The Reflector Battle Ground School Dis-trict nurse Micki Moss is cam-paigning to be Woman of the Year to raise awareness and benefit the Leukemia and Lym-phoma Society (LLS). LLS’s Man and Woman of the Year (MWOY) campaign is a 10-week fundraising event wherein the participant who has the most votes or raises the most money by the end of the campaign wins, but the real winners are the patients. Through her partnership with a couple different home-based businesses, a portion of the sales of every product is go-ing toward her campaign. She’s created a My Thirty-One page, which is a company that sells bags and other items to orga-nize a persons’ home.Moss is also partnering with her cousin through her Origami Owl business, a multi-million dollar company that makes cus-tomized locket jewelry and was founded by a 14-year old girl who could be the poster child for people who dare to dream big. Well, she could be were it not for the fact that LLS has a Boy and Girl of the Year. Cole Hexum was diag-nosed with Burkitt’s leukemia

at the age of seven. At nine years old, he is a survivor and loves soccer. Another Port-land-metro area child, Stella Monteverde-Cakebread, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) four years ago. She needed a bone mar-row transplant and it was a difficult match but today she is a happy, healthy seventh grad-er with a passion for science.

They’re both attending the LLS MWOY Gala, which will be held Sat., June 21 at the downtown Portland Hilton Hotel. The event is where all the money raised is tabulat-ed and the winner of the cam-paign is announced. It’s also the day Monteverde-Cake-bread turns 13. “They’re survivors and they’re picked to be our in-spiration,’’ Moss said.

“They’re our reason why we’re doing this. When you feel like ‘Why am I do-ing this?’ you look at them. Without LLS these kids might not be around.” Moss is also hoping to part-ner with a local restaurant in her fundraising efforts and is planning a Blood Drop cam-paign. As an organization that fights blood cancer, LLS’s icon

is a blood drop much like breast cancer has a pink ribbon. Ar-ea residents would be asked to purchase a paper blood drop and all the money collected would go toward LLS’s efforts. The 2014 Man and Woman of the Year campaign is hop-ing to bring its 10-year tally to $2 million raised for LLS but no one knows where they stand in the competition. According to Moss, all numbers are kept confidential until the big reveal at the Gala. As the only candidate for MWOY living in Southwest Washington, Moss is fueled by her first-hand experiences as a nurse in the Pediatric Cancer and Bone Marrow Transplant Unit at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital in Portland. After she left there, Moss felt she had unfinished business and hap-pened upon a brochure for an-other LLS campaign, Team in Training (TNT). Her husband Eric, who’s in the military, was being deployed and she found it the perfect opportunity to throw herself into a great cause. TNT provides training and sup-port for endurance event fund-raisers like marathons, century bike rides and triathlons. Funds raised for LLS are used for research but also pa-tient services. As Moss ex-plains, from the moment a pa-tient is diagnosed they can call LLS and receive a check to

help them with diagnosis-re-lated expenses and there’s an information center staffed with social workers and nurs-es to answer questions and of-fer support. In between oncol-ogy visits, patients can also call the number to receive di-rection on nutrition or the pro-tocol they’ve been put on, among other things. LLS can also help patients with co-pay-ments, insurance premiums and other financial support as well as provide a support group for families. In the Portland-metro area, a huge presence in LLS research is Oregon Health & Science University. In fact, Dr Brian Druker of OHSU is one of two men credited with the discov-ery of Gleevec, a drug that gave patients dying from chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) a new lease on life and has been effec-tive in fighting a total of 10 dif-ferent cancers. “It’s right in our backyard (OHSU) and it’s this huge can-cer research center and I don’t think people realize how in-volved and how integrated it is. Having it right here is just amazing,” Moss said. To support Micki Moss in her effort to fight blood cancers, go to her website at www.mwoy.org/pages/oswim/oswim14/mmossr. To learn more about the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, go to www.lls.org.

BGSD NURSE MICKI MOSS, shown here flanked by Cole Hexum (left) and Stella Monteverde-Cakebread, is attempting to raise funds and awareness for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS).

Photo courtesy of LLS

Photo courtesy of NASA/SOFIA

NASA’S AIRBORNE

ASTRONOMY AMBASSADOR’S

program is known as SOFIA. Recently, a pair

of Hockinson Middle School teachers had the opportunity

to take a flight on SOFIA.

Photo courtesy of NASA/SOFIA/Kenneth E. Ulbrich

GATHERED IN FRONT of SOFIA’s telescope (from left-to-right) are Kim Abegglen and Anna-Melissa Lyons, both from Hockinson Middle School, Pamela Harman (SOFIA program co-manager), Dave Bloomsness (Southern Oregon Skywatchers), and Robert Black (North Medford High School).

Hockinson teachers

SOFIAwithsoar