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Brent teacher launches a passion for the night sky
By Ann Marie Shambaugh, Staff Writer
As a child, Brent Intermediate teacher Bess Amaral frequently moved around the country due to her father’s job. The constant uprooting made familiarity rare, but one thing always stayed the same.
“Although the homes and the buildings and the people were new, the same moon and the same constellations and the same reflected light of the planets, all of these [things] were like a familiar friend to me,” said Amaral. “I could go out to the night sky that didn’t change, and it was like a security to me, that it would be the same from city to city, and I think it’s that same connection with the cosmos that holds everyone in fascination.”
Amaral’s childhood obsession with the heavens stuck with her throughout her life, including 39 years of teaching. Now the Chicago native spreads her knowledge and love of space with others as a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador by informing the public about the cosmos, and is currently conducting a four month astronomy workshop through the Little Elm Public Library.
The presentation included a detailed powerpoint, hands-on demonstrations and a lively lecture.
“It was very informative, and I learned a lot,” said Neil Shah, who is a member of the Texas Astronomical Society. “I liked the technical explanations and the chemistry.”
Amaral explained the basic science of stars and how and when they can be seen on earth. She said that stars and space have fascinated people of all ages through the centuries, but they played a greater role in daily life before light pollution became a problem.
“There was an appreciation and an awe and a wonder because they could see the night sky,” she said.
Amaral also described how the modern calendar came into existence, which is based on the movement of the earth around its axis and the sun. She made sure to differentiate astronomy from astrology, which she believes is powerless.
“If there is something happening to people, it’s either high cholesterol or high taxes, not the position of the zodiac,” she said.
Although she’s always been interested in astronomy, Amaral got a jumpstart when the National Science Foundation and the Council of Teachers of Mathematics selected 24 educators to participate in the program that was the precursor to the Teacher in Space program.
Amaral said she would have applied to go into space if she would have met the physical requirements, and her close work with the space program made the 1986 Challenger Explosion extremely hard to bear.
“[My students and I] got to meet and work with that crew, so it was a very personal experience,” she said. “It really hit home, because we had followed it very, very, very closely.”
Yet the tragedies and perils of space exploration have quenched Amaral’s space passion. She still loves learning about the universe and sharing her knowledge with other hopeful astronomers of all ages.
“I guess I got the space bug and I wanted to share the love of the space program and the night sky with anyone who’s willing to listen,” she said. “It seems to be an interest that spans the generations. It doesn’t matter where I’ve lived or where I’ve been, all ages love to learn more about the universe.”
When Amaral is not educating people about outer space, she’s educating students at Brent Intermediate School. She teaches bilingual science, math and Spanish.
“I love the school,” she said. “They’re doing some wonderful things.”
Before Amaral landed in Little Elm ISD, she taught in public schools in Dallas, St. Mark’s School of Texas and served as a planetarium director in Roswell, New Mexico.
All workshops begin at 6:30 p.m. and are expected to end with night sky observation if weather permits around 8 p.m. For information or to register, contact the Little Elm Public Library at 214-975-0430.
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