PCEC News

Roger That! Conference was Out-of-this-World

March 03, 2022

Roger That! Conference was Out-of-this-World

The Roger That! Conference celebrates the life and legacy of Roger B. Chaffee, a Grand Rapids born Navy pilot and astronaut. In 1967, Roger, Ed White, and Gus Grissom, the two other members of the NASA Apollo 1 crew, tragically lost their lives in a training exercise. Roger That! has become an annual tradition in West Michigan through the combined efforts of the Grand Valley State University Padnos College of Engineering & Computing and the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences in partnership with the Grand Rapids Public Museum. This year, the 6th annual Roger That! conference was held on February 18 and 19 with a mixture of in-person and online events including academic presentations, STEM programming for school groups and the general public, and keynotes by former NASA astronaut, Colonel Eileen Collins, the first woman to pilot a U.S. space shuttle.

“We had such wonderful speakers and great sessions, and a completely packed room of parents and kids who came to the workshop on solar arrays hosted by Dr. Heidi Jiao (professor of engineering) on Friday,” shared Dr. Samhita Rhodes, professor of engineering and one of the conference coordinators.

As part of Roger That!, the Design That! Challenge featured projects on space-related topics by 4th – 8th grade students. “I saw the loveliest design projects from kids who created space suits for pets and elaborate machines to capture black holes,” said Dr. Rhodes.

“I was star-struck by Col. Collin’s presentation, ‘Through the Glass Ceiling to the Stars,’” Dr. Rhodes recalled. “She spoke about her first time piloting the space shuttle and how hyper-focused she was on getting it right, going over checklists in her head, monitoring all the gauges, and worrying about missing something. Her commander had to tell her, ‘Eileen, look up, you’re missing your first sunrise in space!’. It was such a powerful reminder to look at the big picture and take a moment to appreciate how far you’ve come.”

The PCEC Student Services and Advising team participated in the Museum Celebration component of the Roger That! Conference. Families visiting the PCEC booth at the Grand Rapids Public Museum created “comet catcher” origami toys and parachuting astronauts. The parachuting astronauts could be tested in the Laker wind tunnel before going home with the kids. “It was great to see how engaged the kids were in the parachuting activity,” said Casey Thelenwood, PCEC Assistant Dean. “They were fascinated by the way their astronauts’ plastic parachutes caught the wind and jetted upward out of the tunnel. The GVSU students leading the activities did an excellent job of getting them interested in STEM.” 

“A special shout-out to FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Team 8529 from Holland Christian Middle School for bringing some robots and field elements for families to interact with!” said Sara Maas, PCEC Outreach Coordinator. “It was so nice to have GVSU Engineering alum, Nicki Bonczyk, there with her student team to showcase their robots.” 

Although neither of Col. Collins' talks were recorded, all of the incredible lectures from Friday morning and afternoon are available now on a special playlist on our YouTube channel.

We would like to thank the Michigan Space Grant Consortium for the financial support that allows us to provide the out-of-this-world content from Roger That! to the community.

Visit the Roger That! website.

View photos from Roger That! in the PCEC photo gallery.

View WZZM's article featuring Roger That!

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Page last modified March 3, 2022