"Living the Dream", School Journal Story Library, level 3, March 2017
03 March 2017
Living the Dream is an interview with aerospace engineer and NASA employee Mana Vautier.
You can read or listen to this story to hear about where Mana’s love of space came from and how he got his job at NASA. You also learn what his job involves, his career highlights, and the process for becoming an astronaut.
You can find teacher support materials and a sound file of the recorded interview here: Instructional series search: Living the Dream", School Journal Story Library, level 3, 2017
Other useful resources
- All Technology in the news items tagged space
- The space shuttle: This is a detailed documentary on space shuttles narrated by William Shatner from the Star Trek series. It provides detailed information on making and testing space shuttles and includes filming of the building and testing of a space shuttle.
- Evolution of the Space shuttle
Discussion questions
Discussion questions could include:
- What societal issues influenced the development of space shuttles?
- Where can you see the NASA staff carrying out planning when making a space shuttle?
- How do they select resources when making the shuttle ?
- How do they test a space shuttle?
- What knowledge did Mana mention that an aerospace engineer needs to have?
- What other knowledge can you identify in the documentary that people who work in the space industry need?
- Explore some of the changes made to the space shuttle over time. Why do you think these changes occurred?
Indicators of progression for discussion starters
| Component | Indicator | Level |
| Characteristics of technology |
| 3 |