Black Stars Shine Bright In Preschool’s Orbit

Tysin, a 4‑year-old budding outer space enthusiast, had a question for the special guest from NASA who had come to visit his Newhallville preschool: ​“How can I touch a star?” 

Tysin and his classmates at Harris and Tucker Preschool at 412 Newhall St. have spent Black History Month honoring stars of all kinds — the celestial plasma spheres light-years away and the ​“hidden figures” who shine right in their neighborhood.

Kelly Ramos, a social media specialist at National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), responded to Tysin’s question with a laugh. ​“I don’t think you want to touch a star,” she explained. ​“Stars are very hot.”

“We just learned something!” observed preschool teacher Simone Sheats. ​“Stars are very hot.”

Ramos, whose mother lives in New Haven, had come all the way from Maryland to meet the Harris and Tucker students for a Thursday afternoon star-celebrating event.

Ramos’ visit was part of a concerted effort on the part of the preschool’s principal, Kim Harris, to expose the young students to science, math, and technology as an influx of biotech companies make their way to the Science Park section just to the south of the school’s Newhallville neighborhood.

Over the course of a month, in anticipation of Ramos’ visit, the classroom on the corner of Newhall and Goodrich Streets has come closer and closer to resembling outer space itself. The students created solar system drawings, paper-plate planets, and hand-drawn rocket ships to adorn the walls and hang from the ceiling. 

The preschoolers learned about the planets: their colors and temperatures, how each is affected by its distance from the sun. They learned that the sun is just one of many stars in the universe; it’s the brightest from Earth because it happens to be closest.

As a social media manager, Ramos explained to the class, ​“I help take concepts like astrophysics and make them easier to understand.”

Ramos kicked off a celebration of the Black astronomers and scientists who have contributed to NASA’s space exploration efforts, including those featured in the popular book and film Hidden Figures.

She presented to the students about pivotal Black scientists at NASA and some of the phenomena they studied — including her favorite space subject, black holes.

The children, who ranged in age from three to five years old, already knew the leaders Ramos mentioned: mathematician Katherine Johnson, engineer Mary Jackson, inventor George Edward Alcorn, and astronauts Leland Melvin, Mae Jemison, and Jessica Watkins.

Mae Jemison ​“was the first what?” asked Sheats.

“Black woman!” a student called out.

“To …” Sheats prompted.

“Go into space!”

The event was devoted not only to the ​“hidden figures” of NASA, but to the ​“hidden figures” in each child’s life — the role models and caretakers who don’t always get recognition.

“A hidden figure is someone who does so much in your life, but Ms. Simone doesn’t always get to see that,” Sheats told her students.

Each child had invited at least one personal hidden figure to preschool that day. One by one, they awarded their guests a certificate.

Tysin proudly marched a pair of certificates to his grandparents, Danny and Willa Kelley. He received two enthusiastic hugs in return.

Downstairs, a computer lab doubled as an art gallery, forming a multipurpose space that Harris and Tucker students called ​“the museum.” 

Along the walls, students in the Harris and Tucker after-school program had drawn diagrams of the solar system on black construction paper.

Below their drawings, each student named a ​“family hidden figure” — ​“someone who goes above and beyond the call to help you, your family, and/or your community,” as the worksheet explained. 

A student named Tamya named her mom as her hidden figure because ​“she helps me take stuff off the cabinet.”

Another student, Erin, wrote that her mom and grandma were her hidden figures because ​“if I get in trouble or need help, they will always help me all the time.”

Multiple kids named their principal, Kim Harris, as their hidden figure.

“She is funny, takes care of me, and is good at math,” wrote Kauren.

“If Ms. Kim did not help out my family, I do not know where we would be right now,” wrote Layla.

Upstairs, Harris was directing the moving parts of the afternoon’s event like an orchestra conductor: showing the stream of guests to the classroom, greeting the Yale Community Health Care Van which had parked outdoors to offer vaccines and other health services, teaching older kids how to set out dixie cups of food, guiding younger kids’ attention to the presentation before them.

She thought of a hidden figure in her own life: her late aunt, Doris Blackmon, who taught Harris how to cook and who once helped bring the Harris and Tucker classroom to life.

One of her underlying goals was to prepare kids to feel more comfortable around science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) concepts.

“Look at all the development happening around us,” Harris said, referring to both existing and soon-to-rise buildings in Science Park designed for biotech companies like Artificial Cell Technologies. ​“My kids deserve these things, too.”

Her students in the majority-Black neighborhood of Newhallville are severely underrepresented in the life sciences and engineering. Harris is working hard to ensure that they meet Black role models in STEM careers and gain comfort with math and science at an early age.

As a tide of scientific industries comes to Newhallville, Harris wants them to feel confident in every corner of their community — to know, ​“This is your neighborhood. It’s for you.”

After Ramos finished presenting on Thursday, Sheats played a music video explaining how the solar system works from the perspective of each planet. 

Surrounded by family members and neighbors who have quietly and not-so-quietly left their mark, the preschoolers sang the song by heart. ​“We all orbit the sun,” they chanted, echoing the characters on the screen. 

They danced and twirled like planets forming a solar system of their own.

See below for other recent Independent articles about teaching, reading, and working inside New Haven Public Schools classrooms.

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