n by Barbara Bernstein argaret Buck, a Navajo woman from Bluff, Utah, =e didn’t want to raise sheep, goats and children on the reservation as her parents suggested. “T wanted to do something that seemed more important,” Ms. Buck said. “I wanted a degree.” Ms. Buck, 39, is the first in her family of six brothers and seven sisters to graduate from college. She and six other Navajo women are the first to graduate from an innovative, long-distance learning program sponsored by the University. The Navajo women graduated from the University last June with bachelor’s degrees in elementary education. They represent the largest group of new teachers from their tribe to graduate at one time from a Utah college or university. Ms. Buck said having Native American teachers on the reservation is critical to improving the education of Navajos. “When I went to school, there were no Native American teachers and I was lost,” she said. “Navajo teachers can relate to growing up on the reservation.” Ninety-eight percent of the children at the elementary school where Ms. Buck is a special-education teacher are Native Americans, she said. The percentages are similar for other schools on or near the reservation. “Children look up to the teachers as models,” Ms. Buck said. “They think, ‘If they can be a teacher then I can be a teacher or something else someday.’ University Students Use Satellites To Gaze Through Heaven’s Window Reservation “We need that. We need a lot of educated people in our area.” Ironically, none of the seven graduates from the University’s program on the reservation ever stepped onto the campus prior to June commencement exercises. Under a program jointly funded by the Utah Navajo Development Council, the Utah Department of Indian Affairs and the U.S. Department of Education, they attended classes taught by University instructors on the Navajo Indian Reservation and at the San Juan campus of the College of Eastern Utah in Blanding. The new teachers studied a curriculum tailored specifically for them by University staff and faculty. The curriculum included basic requirements carefully coordinated with courses offered by College of Eastern Utah. It also consisted of ~ regular class work and modular, selfpaced instruction. “The importance of these people as role models for the youth of the Navajo nation will influence generations to come,” said Richard V. Jones, dean of the University’s College of Education. “We are delighted that Weber State was able to provide this opportunity for them.” More Navajo teachers are expected to join the ranks of Weber State graduates in the future, said Marlene Dee-Ben, head of teacher education for the Utah Navajo Development Council. Several students from the Blanding area are planning to complete student teaching requirements this fall, she said, and several others are expected to finish by next spring. ence education. He was on campus last summer showing teachers how to set up and use mini-satellite receiving stations. With a computer, a satellite dish, cables and computer software, a school can receive weather pictures as satellites pass overhead, Dr. Wallach said. If a school already has a computer, the total equipment cost ranges between $500 and $1,500, he said. The program was offered at the University “because of its activities with CAST and because of the knowledge Bob Twiggs has in small satellites and space imaging,” Dr. Wallach said. WeberSat gave the aerospace center an opportunity to explore space imaging, or photography. A $3,000 camera aboard that satellite may lack the high resolution evident in standard space cameras that cost $300,000, but it can take recogniz- Le: is NAVAJO KNOW-HOW—Margaret Buck: “We need a lot of educated people in our area.” Ms. Dee-Ben said she admires the women for their ambition and persistence because they had to balance their studies with family responsibilities and jobs. One of the women, Mary Gray, commuted from her home in New Mexico to attend classes in southern Utah. Six of the seven graduates had obtained teaching jobs in and around Blanding by fall. The seventh was waiting for a school board review of her application. “| was a licensed practical nurse in Moab for a while, but I thought I needed to go back to the reservation and teach,” Ms. Buck said. “I’ve lived here all my life and nobody encouraged me to go to school. I kind of struggled through life myself. But I’m encouraging my nieces and nephews. I hope they all go to college.” & ORBITER OPERATION — Students Jeff Raetzke (left) and Chance Egan tighten bolts on the University’s next satellite. ublic-school teachers clus- Barbara Bernstein is a writer with Continuing Education and Community Services. tered around a computer terminal at Weber State watching pictures from a weather satellite some 500 miles above the Earth. Down the hall, University students studied data from another satellite that measured meteor impacts on orbiting objects. In another room, a ham-radio operator bounced signals off a small satellite and talked to Russian cosmonauts. These activities, and a growing number of others like them, are the ae SU ALUMNI = gh CENTER “ AMPAIGN For more information, call (80 1) 626-6564.__ Te SS. EE See, BE: = direct result of a string of inexpensive but successful satellites created by the University’s Center for Aerospace Technology (CAST). “The major benefit of these satellites is education,” said Robert Twiggs, director of the aerospace center and the driving force behind its success. “Students are getting the practical, hands-on education that is vital to learning.” WSU surprised the satellite industry in 1985 by building and launching NUSAT, the Northern Utah Satellite. The first of its kind launched by a college, NUSAT was valued at $1.2 million, compared to $50 to $150 million spent on NASA satellites. The success of the orbiter challenged the belief that cheap satellites could not be effective, Mr. Twigg said. NUSAT sent data to a ground station at the University for a year and a half before falling into the atmosphere and disintegrating. The University followed its first satellite with four more miniorbiters — three built for an interna- tional ham-radio association, AMSAT, and one, dubbed WeberSat, used by the University. The four satellites were launched in January 1990. WeberSat flew into space on a French rocket, tucked into what was previously an unused space. The unusual placement further contributes to the satellite’s relatively low cost, Mr. Twiggs said. The satellites have started new space-related industries and created a host of classroom opportunities for teachers, said Jeff Wallach, a consultant with NASA. “They make classroom instruction come alive,” he said. Dr. Wallach is part of a nationwide instructional program that encourages teachers to use satellites as a way of promoting math and sci- able pictures of earth and other celestial bodies, Mr. Twiggs said. “We're getting better and better at space photography all the time,” he said. “We’re pleased with the quality of the camera.” Officials at Motorola also are pleased, said Mr. Twiggs. The company plans to use technology developed for WeberSat and its sister satellites to build 77 satellites to improve cellular-telephone coverage. Though Weber State’s current satellite will work for another 10 years, Mr. Twiggs said faculty and students already have begun development of another satellite. Their latest venture, built for AMSAT, breaks their pattern of small satellites. It will measure 22 feet across and orbit as high as 30,000 miles above the earth. “The higher orbit will let us talk with it longer,” Mr. Twiggs said. “WeberSat whips around the earth in a 500-mile earth orbit that allows us to talk with it only for 15 minutes every 12 hours. With this new satellite, we'll be able to talk for 12 to 16 hours at a time.” @ 20