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 05.02.03

NAPLES, Florida (AP) -- School officials fired a high school teacher who gave ninth-graders a demonstration on condoms -- using props including mood lighting, music and a banana.

The Collier County School Board gave no specific reason for firing Colin Nicholas Thursday, asserting it had the right to dismiss an employee without cause if the worker was still within a 97-day probationary period. The board's decision cannot be appealed.

"The information is so clear: he doesn't belong in the classroom," board member Pat Carroll said.

Nicholas, who also had two of his students pretend to be sex therapists to answer other students' questions, was not present at Thursday's board meeting because his wife was in labor.

But he has maintained he never got proper sex education training -- and was never told condoms weren't allowed in classrooms. Nicholas has also said his intent was to simulate situations his students might face, because he believes teaching safe sex benefits students.

Officials began their investigation of the incident in mid-December after some parents whose children told them about the condom lesson complained.

"It's those kinds of demonstrations that we don't want in our schools," school superintendent Dan White said.
 

- 05.02.03

School ant experiment to honor astronauts

SYRACUSE, New York (AP) -- Four high school students plan to finish their ants-in-space experiment started aboard Columbia, seeking to honor the shuttle's seven fallen astronauts and their commitment to scientific discovery.

"Just because the mission fails doesn't mean your dreams have to fail," said Rachel Poppe, one of the students.

"Sometimes it can be dangerous searching for answers. But you can't stop searching," the Fowler High School senior said. "We will finish our work in dedication to the crew."

Classmate Abby Golash, also a senior, agreed. "We feel it would be dishonoring the astronauts, who risked their lives to go into space to do the science. We couldn't stop it now."

NASA experience
Poppe, Golash, fellow senior Brad Miller and sophomore Liban Muhamed waited more than three years to see their ant farm fly into space. They wanted to learn whether the ants would tunnel any differently in minimal gravity, said Charlotte Archabald, a chemistry teacher who helped organize the project.

Because of their involvement in the Columbia mission, the students enjoyed behind-the-scene tours of NASA facilities and VIP seating at Cape Canaveral for the shuttle's launch on January 16. The biggest impression, though, was made by the astronauts and scientists they met.

They never got to meet the Columbia crew. Still, when the shuttle broke into pieces over Texas minutes before it was to land Saturday, killing all seven crew members, the tragedy hit the students as a personal loss.

Sometimes it can be dangerous searching for answers. But you can't stop searching.
-- Rachel Poppe, Fowler High School senior

"When I heard the news, I was in hysterics. I couldn't stop crying. I was a mess," Poppe said. "They took care of our project. They released the ants for us. They spent so much time learning all about our project."

 

To design an experiment that would meet NASA standards and have a good chance at success, the students at Fowler worked with world-class scientists, researchers and engineers.

"We felt part of the space program," Miller said. "We all felt like a little piece of us was gone when the shuttle disappeared."

The Fowler students were among students from nine states and eight countries who had science experiments aboard Columbia.

Students from the Farnsworth Middle School in Guilderland, a suburb of Albany, and Schenectady's Central Park Middle School sent up seeds harvested from Albany's Pine Bush. Now, they will take the control group of seeds and plant them in memory gardens dedicated to the seven astronauts.
Feeling pride
Engineering students at Syracuse University came up with money to meet most of the $100,000 needed to keep the project at Fowler, a science magnet school, running for the past three years.

"It may have started with just a small group of students, but this project has had everyone's attention," principal Greg Walker said. "Everyone in school talks about 'our' ants and 'our' shuttle. It has been energizing to see the pride of ownership swell through the school."

We all felt like a little piece of us was gone when the shuttle disappeared.
-- Brad Miller, Fowler High School senior

Fowler marked the shuttle disaster with a moment of silence Monday. The day was far from routine for the student scientists, who answered questions in several media interviews, including a five-minute appearance on NBC's "Today Show."
Data from the doomed flight was saved since the students were able to download it daily on an Internet link. But the information is unavailable to the students for now because it has been impounded by NASA as part of its investigation, Archibald said.
Golash, who is headed to Cornell to study botany, said the experiment has already yielded one discovery: that their original hypothesis was wrong. They figured their ants would tunnel slower in space.
"Instead," she said, "they ended up tunneling like maniacs."