Name. Ellen Ochoa, A Woman Of Many Talents Question1. Answer. Question2. Answer. Miss Maggie s Weekly Lesson Packet No. 30 Sept.

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Name Miss Maggie s Weekly Lesson Packet No. 30 Sept. 25, 2001 Women In Science: The First Hispanic American Woman Astronaut Before You Read You will read about Ellen Ochoa.

1 Name Miss Maggie s Weekly Lesson Packet No. 30 Sept. 25, 2001 Women In Science: The First Hispanic American Woman Astronaut Before You Read You will read about Ellen Ochoa. This activity will help you to better understand the article. The headings below appear in the article. Read each heading and write 2 questions the heading brings to mind. Thinking about the question words, who, what where, when, why, and how will help you write your questions. Read each section of the article. After you read, come back to your questions. Answer them using the information you read. You do not have to write complete sentences. Ellen Ochoa, A Woman Of Many Talents

2 Ellen Ochoa s Role Model Ellen s Hispanic Roots Ellen s Commitment To Education Ellen s Responsibilities While In Space

3 Ellen s First Space Mission Ellen Returns To Space In 1994 and 1999 Part of Being An Astronaut Is Playing A Flute In Space! You just used an important reading strategy turning headings into questions and then reading to answer the questions. Using this strategy will help you to set purposes for reading. It will also help you to concentrate on what you read and to remember more information!

4 Women In Science: The First Hispanic American Woman Astronaut Ellen Ochoa, A Woman Of Many Talents Imagine gazing at the vivid blues and greens of Earth from space. You would view your planet as one world. There would be no lines showing the borders of countries. This is a picture Ellen Ochoa has seen many times because she is a United States astronaut. Dr. Ochoa has flown on three space shuttle flights. She is also an inventor and holds three patents. In addition to her busy professional life, Dr. Ochoa is a wife and a mother. Ellen Ochoa s Role Model Family is important to Ellen Ochoa. Her mother was a wonderful role model. She began to take college classes when Ellen was one year old. She raised five children on her own, so she could not go to school full time. She did take one class each semester. She graduated when Ellen was 22 years old. That shows hard work and determination. No wonder Ellen is such a hard working person! Ellen s Hispanic Roots Ellen s Hispanic roots come from her father. His family is from Mexico. As a child, Ellen s dad spoke both Spanish and English. Ellen regrets that her father did not speak his native language while she was growing up. Many years ago, some people felt more comfortable speaking only English if they lived in America. Ellen is glad things have changed now. Today, there are a growing number of proud Spanish speakers in the United States.

5 Ellen s Commitment To Education Like her mother, Ellen put off her education to help her family. When she graduated from high school, she was offered a scholarship to Stanford University. Ellen turned it down to stay home and help her mother. She worked for two years. Then she went to San Diego University. She studied physics. After graduating, Ellen enrolled at Stanford University. She worked hard and received perfect grades! When Ellen left Stanford she had a Ph.D. in electrical engineering. Today, Ellen enjoys visiting schools and talking with students. She tells students about the importance of education. She explains it is hard work that got her where she is today. Ellen wants young people to realize they can achieve their goals by getting a good education and working hard. Ellen s Responsibilities While In Space During the 719 hours Ellen has been in space, she often works on experiments. These studies look at our atmosphere. She makes observations and takes measurements. Her findings help scientists to better understand how the sun and various chemicals combine to hurt our ozone layer. Ellen s First Space Mission Ellen s first mission took place in April On that flight, the crew studied the Earth s atmosphere. They measured the amount of ozone in the atmosphere. We know that certain substances used by people on Earth can harm the ozone layer. Things such as chemicals used in air conditioners can damage this protective layer

6 around the Earth. It was the job of Ellen and the crew to measure substances in the air at different levels of the atmosphere. They needed to see where the ozone layer was being hurt. They also measured the energy coming from the sun. This data is being studied to determine if the sun s energy levels, together with chemicals, harm the Earth s atmosphere. Ellen Returns To Space In 1994 and 1999 Ellen s next mission took place in November of The crew carried out further experiments to learn more about our atmosphere. Ellen was in charge of all the studies on this flight. In June of 1999, Ellen returned to space. This time the space shuttle s crew performed the first docking at the International Space Station. They delivered supplies and equipment so astronauts from various countries could live at the space station together. Part of Being An Astronaut Is Playing A Flute In Space! One of the interesting things Ellen has done on a space flight is to play her flute! This shows one of the important qualities NASA looks for in choosing astronauts. They want to find people who have a variety of skills such as musical ability, are bilingual, or who have played on sports teams. These skills, and others, show that a person can learn quickly and do many things well. This is an important trait for astronauts. Ellen Ochoa is certainly a person of many abilities!

7 Think About The Facts Complete the web by drawing lines and writing what you learned. One line is drawn for you in the first web. Ellen learned the importance of education from her mother. Ellen s Education Ellen s Space Flights

8 Going Further 1. Why do you think it is important to have a trained person repair an air conditioner? 2. Reread the opening paragraph. What does a view from space tell you about the Earth? 3. Many years ago, some people didn t speak their native language in the United States. Do you know someone who speaks more than one language? What can you learn from this person? 4. What can Ellen Ochoa s life can teach you? Find out more about harmful substances in our air. Log onto and watch You Must Be Choking.

9 Dear Teachers, This activity is part of our Women In Science series. For two other articles in this growing series, check out the archived packets on our Weekly Activity Packet page. If you have any suggestions for women to be highlighted, please let me know. This particular article was written as part of Hispanic Heritage Month, September 15-October 15, If you are using the article during this time frame, you might want to focus on the opening paragraph with your students. Read these sentences together, You would view your planet as one world. There would be no lines showing the borders of countries. Discuss that concept in light of recent world events. Elicit from the students their feelings on this image. To better meet individual needs, we have written this packet for various uses. If you are interested in improving content area reading skills, you will want to duplicate the first two pages with the packet. Perhaps you are only interested in reading the article about Dr. Ochoa. You can duplicate only the article. We have tried to format this packet so that you can pick and choose those aspects that will be beneficial for your classroom needs. Enjoy and please let me know how I can assist you in your classroom! Kathy Kathy@missmaggie.org

Before you read this non-fiction article, think about these questions:

Name Miss Maggie s Weekly Lesson Packet No. 30 Sept. 25, 2001 Women In Science: The First Hispanic American Woman Astronaut Before you read this non-fiction article, think about these questions: 1. Who