By Scott Brinton
"What kind of energy are you experiencing now?" she asked, looking quite serious.
"Gravitational energy," one boy said with a tentative tone in his voice.
"How can you show me kinetic energy?" Cruz asked.
"Jump!" several students exclaimed.
"All of you -- jump."
With that, the students propelled themselves into the air and landed on the linoleum floor with a collective thump.
"If I could freeze-frame you halfway while you were jumping, what type of energy would you be experiencing?" Cruz continued.
"Kinetic," said one boy.
"Potential and kinetic?" another interjected.
"Potential and kinetic," Cruz confirmed.
The day's lesson was the difference between potential, or stored, energy, and kinetic energy, or the energy of motion. Cruz began with a simple definition of energy: the ability to do work. But for Cruz, simple definitions never suffice.
Cruz, 32, who has taught in the Bellmore-Merrick Central High School District for nearly a decade, prefers to demonstrate the principles that she's trying to convey to her students. And this past summer, Cruz got the chance to become a student in a scientific demonstration herself -- at 30,000 feet above the earth.
Cruz applied to and was accepted into the Northrop Grumman Corporation's Weightless Flights of Discovery Program, which sends science and math teachers on zero-gravity flights at various locations around the country. The flights are similar to the "Vomit Comet" rides taken by astronauts to train for space flights. On Sept. 10, Cruz flew in the airspace above Bethpage, which happens to be her hometown.
Sandra Evers-Manly, president of the Northrop Grumman Foundation, said, "Every engineer, every scientist, every technically trained person in our nation can look back and identify a teacher who played a significant role in his or her decision to pursue a technical career. The Weightless Flights of Discovery program is all about giving teachers the tools and experiences they need to show their students that math and science are not only entertaining, but can also be the basis for a fascinating career."
According to the foundation's Web site, zero-gravity flights are performed by a specially modified aircraft, a Federal Aviation Administration-approved plane called G-Force One. The maneuvers are conducted in dedicated airspace 100 miles long and 10 miles wide. Specially trained pilots fly the aircraft in a series of maneuvers called parabolas, or arcs, between 24,000 and 32,000 feet of altitude.
At the beginning of each parabola, the aircraft climbs at a 45-degree angle. At the top of the arc, the aircraft swings over into a controlled descent that creates a temporary zero-gravity environment. The teacher flights include 15 parabolas, ranging from low-gravity environments typical of the moon (1/6th G) or Mars (1/3 G) to complete weightlessness. At the end of each weightless period, which lasts about 30 seconds, the aircraft is gradually pulled out of the descent, re-establishing normal gravity inside the plane.
As part of the program, Cruz had to design an experiment that she could perform in zero gravity, which she could then use in lessons with her students. Cruz came up with a question for her pupils:
"How can Ms. Cruz perform push-ups with 310 pounds on her back?"
Three hundred ten pounds was the combined weight of Cruz's two partners during the weightless flight. The trio tried Cruz's experiment to see if she could, in fact, do a push-up. She weighs all of 120 pounds, but her experiment was a success, and it was filmed so she can show it to her students. She'll premiere it during lessons on gravity in January.
Among a number of other experiments, the teachers released water into the air during zero-gravity periods and attempted to drink it. Try as she might, Cruz could not catch the water in her mouth. "I had all these drops of water floating around me, and when the gravity went back, I got drenched," she said.
At Grand Avenue, Cruz co-advises the science club. She also created the Students Network of Cooperative Science, which gives students the chance at an early age to start performing high-level science experiments and recording their data, in preparation for the Central District's Authentic Science Research Program in high school. The Authentic Science program is a four-year endeavor in which a select group of students take additional science-research classes and prepare research papers for the Siemens-Westinghouse and Intel research competitions. Cruz recruits student researchers from Central District high schools to work with her middle-school students.
Victor Longaro is an interim assistant principal at Grand Avenue. He retired from the Levittown School District as the assistant superintendent for instruction. Before that, he had served as principal of Island Trees High School, where Cruz was a student at the time. "I always found her to be very, very inquisitive," Longaro said. "She was just one of those people who you knew would succeed, find her niche. She always wanted to make a difference, and she has."
After high school, Cruz went on to Hartwick College in upstate Oneonta, where she earned a degree in biology, and to C.W. Post, where she received a master's in biology education. She was a teaching intern in the Central District for a year before signing on as a full-time teacher. "I love what I do," she said. "I love the interaction I have with my students. I look forward to each day."
Kathy Sapanski, a Grand Avenue assistant principal, recommended Cruz for the Weightless Flights program. "I've always enjoyed going into her classroom," Sapanski said. "She's very kind and understanding toward the kids. She's always trying to connect character to conduct and content."
"My goal," Cruz said, "is to inspire kids to pursue an interest in science."
Comments about this story? SBrinton@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 203.
