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Photo by Jim Craven Lone Pine sixth-grader Jeremy Bravo turns himself around using the power of a makeshift gyroscope -- actually a bike wheel -- during a presentation Wednesday by NASA aerospace education specialist Minot Parker. Heads spin as NASA visits Medford kids ooh and aah over science presentation By VICKI GUARINO By the time the space shuttle blasts off next week for a work tour in space, hundreds of Medford students will know a lot more about what's going on. And Lone Pine Elementary School students no doubt will think of classmate Jeremy Bravo when they see the spacecraft maneuver. On Wednesday they watched NASA lecturer Minot Parker demonstrate space navigation by perching Jeremy on casters and setting him rotating under the drive of a gyroscope. Parker's gyroscope was nothing more than a spinning bicycle wheel. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration educator is spending two weeks in Medford elementary schools, making science seem familiar, simple and, ultimately, approachable. His schedule includes presentations at nine Medford schools, plus one Ashland elementary, and curriculum development work with teachers. The tour was put together by North Medford High School planetarium director Gary Sprague to encourage youngsters as well as instruct. NASA's education division at the Ames Research Center in California regularly puts instructors in primary and secondary schools, but seldom for so many days. Parker's presentation to students is light on talk and heavy on demonstration, models and pictures. He held up models as he described life on the space shuttle and the painstaking process of building the multinational space station. When the station is finished in 2003, Parker said, "you will see it flying over you. It will look like a bright star." Parker's slides of views captured by the Hubble Space Telescope raised a chorus of oohs and aahs. And the sight of Parker dressing up a student for a walk in outer space prompted giggles. The demonstration suit was just a mock-up, Parker advised. He said using a real suit wouldn't be practical: It weighs 275 pounds and costs $2.5 million. The NASA presentation leaped from the vast knowns of science, and a world of daily discoveries, to the vast unknowns. "New information will always give you new questions," Parker said. Sixth-grader David Trimble was impressed. He had repeatedly raised his hand when Parker asked his audience about their interests in science and space travel. Later, David explained that he wants to be a doctor -- possibly working in space. "I really learned a lot," David said at the end of the program. "I didn't know they have a satellite circling Jupiter." Parker urged students to study more, and read daily. He feigned surprise that so many youngsters had been to Disneyland, but none had been to the NASA research center a short distance away. And although aeronautics and space are at the core of the agency's name, Parker told students that some important Earth-bound studies can be credited to NASA as well. NASA studied rain forest burning in the Amazon River basin, and forest land regeneration in Oregon. Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA