Pupils share in Nasa live link

In an age when technology reigns, shared classes between children on different sides of the planet are nothing new, but when they journey into space simultaneously that’s a whole new frontier.

Yesterday, children from schools as far apart as Cork and California took part in a special live-link broadcast with Nasa scientists as part of Earth Day, when events are held worldwide to demonstrate support for environmental protection.

In Cork, 37 students from St Michael’s National School Blackrock, Gaelscoil Mahon, and Beaumont Girls National School, travelled the short distance to CIT Blackrock Castle Observatory to join five other schools globally in the real-time internet link-up with Nasa where they had the opportunity to quiz Nasa scientists on the relationship between human civilisation and our ecosystem.