Windsor-Essex students swept up in Artemis II excitement as history unfolds

Emsley Medeiros, a Grade 6 student at Mount Carmel Catholic Elementary School in Windsor, Ont., stands in front of a project she made on the Orion Spacecraft. (Sanjay Maru/CTV News Windsor)

A historic Moon mission is helping turn classroom curiosity into real-time excitement for students across Windsor-Essex.

NASA’s Artemis II mission is generating buzz in local classrooms, marking the first crewed mission around the Moon in more than 50 years — and the first to include a Canadian astronaut.

It launched Wednesday at 6:35 p.m. EST from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

At Dougall Public School, Grade 6 teacher Heather Wakeman says space is already a core part of the Grade 6 curriculum — but this moment is taking student interest to another level.

“Luckily, the kids love talking about space, so we’ve been doing this for about three months, talking about different missions and just the whole logistics of being in space,” Wakeman said. “They’re very curious. It’s a great age for curiosity.”

She says the lead-up to the mission — and the presence of Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen — has made the topic even more engaging.

“The kids are wanting to talk about it, because finally, it’s happening after all these months of waiting,” she said. “This is the first mission to the moon in 53 years, and a Canadian is on board. So the kids are excited.”

Wakeman, who said she has a personal interest with all things outer space compared to her fellow staffers at Dougall Public School, adds one concept that fascinates students most is the scale of a rocket launch.

“Just the tip of it is where the astronauts are,” she said. “It’s a whole process of just getting the energy to get this rocket into space.”

Meanwhile, at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Elementary School, Grade 6 teacher Jessica Maure says the timing of the mission couldn’t be better.

“We were able to bring a lot of the information about Artemis II and the Orion spacecraft and the astronauts into our space unit,” Maure said.

She says the real-time nature of the mission has transformed how students engage with the material.

“I’ve taught the Earth and Space unit before, and it’s always fun, it’s always exciting — but this just adds such a level of interest for students to be able to witness something like this firsthand.”

Maure expects that interest to continue well beyond launch day, with students following along as the mission unfolds.

“The mission is about 10 days, so we’re hoping to keep coming back to what’s actually going on — where they are and what they’re doing.”

For some students, the experience is deeply personal.

Grade 6 student Emsley Medeiros says the mission marks the first time she’ll watch a launch live.

“This is gonna be the first time I actually get to watch a spaceship go into space,” she said. “I’ve heard about them, but I’ve never actually got to live in the moment.”

Medeiros says her interest in space grew through classroom learning, including a project on the Orion spacecraft.

“I learned a lot,” she said. “The Orion spacecraft has a protected heat shield … it could protect about 5,000 Fahrenheit. That’s a lot.”

Maure’s class also found a unique way to connect with the mission: by sending their names to space.

“We contributed the Grade 6 classes to that database,” she said, referring to NASA’s initiative to include names aboard the spacecraft. “So in a way, we are all going around the moon.”

Experts say that kind of connection can have a lasting impact.

“As somebody from this country, I can only imagine what it’ll mean to a kid of today to know that Canadians can go all the way to the moon,” said Jack Hostrawser, a PhD student in planetary science and astronomy at Western University.

He added Artemis represents more than a single mission.

“It’s about a whole era of learning more about the moon and then about the Earth by that process.”