Race to the Moon: Sputnik to Apollo with Rick Collin

This is a 5-meeting virtual class using the Zoom platform.

Thursdays, April 2, 9, 16, 23, 30, 6:30-8 pm Central time.

About this class: Nothing so captured the fierce Cold War competition between the United States and the Soviet Union as the race to land the first man on the Moon. How the two nations conducted that race was starkly different. This course will cover mankind's fascination with space exploration, beginning with the ancient Greeks and ending with the successful achievement of President Kennedy's goal of landing a US astronaut on the Moon before the end of the 1960s. The Race to the Moon pushed the boundaries of human imagination and helped us gain a new appreciation and perspective about the fragility of life on Earth.

Skills Acquired: Historical Awareness, Scientific Reasoning, Curiosity & Inquiry, Perspective Taking, Information Synthesis, Critical Thinking, Oral Comprehension

Please note: This class will be held live on Zoom during the dates and time listed above. If you can’t attend a session or if the time doesn’t work for you, a password-protected course page will host video recordings for registered participants to watch at their convenience.

Instructor bio: Rick Collin is a historian passionate about history told through stories. His love of space history comes naturally. Rick’s father, Everett Collin, worked at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C., from 1961-74, which included a stint as deputy director of educational programs. His work included developing and coordinating the Spacemobile Program that shared the excitement of space travel with audiences of all ages worldwide, especially school children. During this golden age of manned space flight with Projects Mercury, Gemini and Apollo, he often brought home NASA-produced films about the latest mission. This resulted in Rick being “the most popular kid in the neighborhood whenever I invited my friends over to watch the latest NASA movie from Dad.” Rick has a master of science degree in Space Studies, with an emphasis in space history, from the University of North Dakota. He also worked as a videoconference coordinating producer for NASA’s education series, Update for Teachers, at Oklahoma State University in the early 1990s, which was transmitted several times each school year to more than 2,000 sites in the United States, Canada and Mexico.