THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, March 3, 1996 TAG: 9603010207
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 02 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: Mr. Roberts' Neighborhood
SOURCE: Frank Roberts
LENGTH: Medium: 73 lines
Want to feel - well - not too bright? Listen to an 11-year-old explaining, patiently, how to get there from here.
These days, it's not as simple as checking a map. You have to know about aeronautical charts, mathematical formulas, S equals DT, megabytes, gigabytes, dog bites.
The last is important. The map, showing point A and point B, features such locales as Wagging River, Dog Gone, K-9 Lake, Roll Over, Barker and Airdale.
The problem is finding the swiftest way of getting from Airdale to Scarsdale. Sure, everybody knows a plane will get you there faster than a car - but how, why, etc.
That's where the 11-year-old comes in. Kaitlin Bowles, a Nansemond-Suffolk Academy sixth-grader, is at the Langley Research Center, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, on camera, talking over my mostly bald head.
She is one of the ``stars'' of ``Navigating: How Do We Get There?'' shown recently on PBS, which NASA hopes to turn into a series.
The 30-minute film will also be playing in many fifth- to seventh-grade classrooms.
Typical of the '90s, it replaces the human touch.
NASA employees had been visiting classrooms, ``but requests from schools exceed the number of people we can send out,'' said Marchelle Canright, Center Education Programs officer at NASA's Office of Education.
She dreamed up the concept that features Patterson Biggs, a program specialist in Aerospace Education Service, some special effects that will not make Spielberg sweat, cartoon characters, Kaitlin, and Amory Cervarich, a student at Blair Middle School in Norfolk.
Canright calls the initial offering ``a prototype that will not necessitate face-to-face lessons, but still allow us to reach out, positively, to the classroom.''
``It will be broadcast in the near future on NASA TV. Local cable networks can pick it up,'' she said, explaining, ``we wanted to have two students to act as Biggs' assistant. If more shows are done, Kaitlin has a really good chance of being part of them.
``In the film,'' Canright said, ``Kaitlin and her friend come down out of nowhere and materialize on the set - that's one of the special effects - to help him make sense of the clues.''
The plot is this: Biggs may lose his mega-friend, Giggs - short for gigabyte - to a computer ailment. He has four hours to locate and deliver the antidote. The girls give him a helping hand and helpful equations.
Kaitlin and Amory are members of The Hurrah Players, the prestigious children's theater group in Norfolk, where NASA held its auditions.
They had a lot of lines to learn, but they did not have to learn any new names. They use their own in the show.
``Kaitlin was so good,'' Canright said. ``Pat Biggs was impressed with her ability to learn lines. She comes across as someone who understands.''
The youngster can really do all the mapping and equations, and she really can explain speed, time and distance. She is a straight-A student.
Kaitlin and her parents, Rhonda and D.B., live on Tason Drive.
A member of The Hurrah Players and Suffolk's Fine Arts Center, she said, ``I like acting and I like to draw, dance, read Archie Comics and mystery books.''
The standard question, ``What do you want to be when you grow up?'' elicited a not-too-standard reply.
``I'll do what I wanna do.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo courtesy of NASA
Patterson Biggs, a NASA education specialist, and Kaitlin Bowles
star in a scene from NASA's film ``Navigating: How Do We Get
There?''
by CNB