My name is Neal Irving, and I'm an Educator Intern on the TIMED mission. Part of the Education and Public Outreach Department's role is teaching the public about the missions designed, built, and run from APL. One of the best ways to do that is by having teachers work with the team members and transfer what they've learned to the classroom. In addition, since teachers are used to communicating with people who may not be specialists in a particular field, I've been able to help design some materials intended to help the general public learn about the TIMED mission.

I'm an elementary education major at the University of Maryland, concentrating in math and science. A major component of my program involves serving a summer internship in an agency that uses math and science in the real world, so that I can bring that real-world experience back to the classroom with me. APL was one of the sites sponsoring the program, and the proposal looked interesting, so I chose it.

As of May 2001, I will have a degree in elementary education. Unlike many of my fellow students, I've taken 26 years to graduate! Of course, that included a 16-year break before returning to school in 1993 on a part-time basis. Although coming back to school as an adult gives me a different view of college life – and it has been a good experience – I don't recommend taking that much time off.

I've worked mostly in retail businesses, from part-time stock to management. It has been a great way to meet people – and I enjoy helping them – but you usually have to do what they want, and not everyone is understanding of your feelings or values your opinion. Once I received my associate's degree from Montgomery College, I knew I didn't want to waste my education, and I decided teaching would be a rewarding way to help people. I believe my work experience gives me an appreciation of other opinions and ways of doing things, and that type of thinking is needed in the teaching profession.

My internship has been interesting in that I expected to do research for several weeks and then design a teaching unit based on that. Fortunately I'm flexible, so that when the Education and Public Outreach team asked me to help, I was happy to oblige. I've been able to meet and learn about many TIMED team members in my job helping prepare the Careers in Space page. It has made me realize that, when I teach, I can inform my students that they can realistically consider the space exploration field as a career. As evidenced by the TIMED mission, not everyone in rocket science is a rocket scientist, nor should they all be. A strong team is diverse and gets its strength from that diversity. That is as true in the workplace as it is in the classroom.

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