Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
WEST VALLEY CITY — In her nine years on Earth, Eliza Wilson has learned to tell what the difference between what is fun and what's not, what's awesome and what's not and what makes a good teacher and what does not.
On Friday, Eliza brought all of these examples together. Thanks to her teacher, David Pendleton, she and 649 of her school peers got to see a tree sapling from NASA that had traveled around the moon. And they saw their teacher plant it.
"I don't watch a lot of news or anything, but I know what NASA is. They know a lot about science and they have rockets and stuff. And we're Armstrong Academy! It's fun to have anything from NASA," she said after the tree planting ceremony. "Mr. Pendleton said he applied for this because he wanted all the students to see what science can do. ... He's just, like, an amazing teacher."
Amid cries of, "Stop touching me!" and, "Teacher, he hit me!" Eliza and her friends stood and waited to hear about the tree. When adults started to speak, children from as young as 5 years old stood and listened — as long as they could — to information about how important this tree is.
Sixteen hundred teachers applied to get a tree for their school and 50 or so received one, according to the program's leaders. Armstrong Academy got theirs on Monday, thanks to Pendleton applying to the NASA tree planting program.
Utah has received some of these saplings from NASA over the years, including the original "moon trees" that were planted across the U.S. to commemorate the lunar landing in 1969. One was planted in Draper back in 1976. Although what Armstrong Academy planted is also named a "moon tree," its seeds flew on Artemis I in 2022, not during Apollo 11 in 1969. The trees are also delivered through a program with NASA, the U.S. Forest Service and other government programs.
Each of Pendleton's students said he was a great teacher because he was willing to do whatever he needed to do to motivate his students. He recently had students drop pumpkins from the top of the school with the help of the local fire department in order to understand physics. When he needed to motivate these 9- and 10-year olds to work on their math skills, he told them they could shave his head if they all passed their math facts. He is prepared to do the head shaving early next year when he believes they'll meet the goal.
"I try to make learning fun," Pendleton said, "We already study a lot about plants. But I think the fact that we have this connection through the name of our school, Neil Armstrong Academy, was fun for them. In later years when it's taller than all of us, it'll direct their vision upward and that's what we're going for metaphorically. We want them to have lofty goals. ... We want them to innovate and think beyond."
For John Paul Sorensen, the Neil Armstrong Academy principal, Pendleton's desire to teach students by having fun and making subjects real to them is what makes him a great teacher. He believes all his teachers are great for doing the same. Their goal is for students to think beyond what is happening in front of them and make connections to their own world. As a STEM-certified school by the Utah Action STEM Center, the connections to the sciences are equally as significant.
With that being said, Sorensen and Pendleton may have been pleased and surprised by the conversation students had with their peers and others.
Teachers explained to their classes that this tree would live for at least 50 more years, meaning they will be able to walk by the school and see it when they get older. Although most understood that 50 years would be in a long time and that they could see the tree when "we're not little kids," as one student explained. Other students began instantly to figure out how old they would be in 2074. They were shocked.
"Wait, I'll be 60 years old in 50 years," said Colbie Ellis, 10, a fourth grader in Pendleton's class. "I'll be a grandma!"
"Wow! We won't even be just mamas, but grandmas," a student said, while shaking her head.
"Yeah, but maybe our grandkids can go to school here and they'll see the tree," said Alyx Martinez, 9. "That'll be OK. That might be cool."
