A giant leap for teacher-kind: How does it feel to be responsible for a rock at least as valuable as the Hope Diamond? Lake Forest teacher Cathy Cook had a chance to find out when she temporarily became custodian of NASA moon rocks. Cook, certified to borrow the samples after taking a course at the Museum of Science and Industry that NASA offered to educators, had received the treasures to show to kindergarten-through-3rd grade classes at Lake Forest District 67’s four primary schools in January.
Contacted afterward, she sounded relieved that the three soil samples and three rock samples encased in a heavy plastic disc had made it through the four days of her stewardship and back to NASA.
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“It was a little bit nerve-racking,” Cook said. “I couldn’t let it out of my sight. I had to be conscious of where the disc was at all times. When I didn’t have it, the disc was in a safe, which had to be approved by NASA. It was a tremendous responsibility. The samples are priceless.”