It’s not every day students get to watch a Martian make a peanut butter sandwich. But students in Pasadena Memorial High School’s Technology Systems course had that very out-of-this-world experience.

The peanut butter-sandwich-making-Martian was in fact Norman Chaffee, a retired engineer from NASA Johnson Space Center who volunteers in Pasadena ISD. Chaffee visits Memorial’s Technology Systems class weekly, and he recently created a scenario in which he was a Martian from outer space that wanted the students to write a technical report for him on how to make a peanut butter sandwich.

As the Martian (Chaffee) acted out the technical steps the students wrote down, the former NASA engineer showed the students how mishaps from poor technical writing could lead to a disaster—which in this case was a non-traditional and messy peanut butter sandwich.

“This activity was an exciting introduction to technical writing,” said Memorial’s Technology Systems instructor Jeannie Gaines. “The students thought Mr. Chaffee’s enlightening display of the Martian’s inability to make a simple sandwich was hilarious. It quickly grabbed the students’ attention as they realized the technical directions were not very clear for a NASA engineer, much less a Martian.”

The Technology Systems course is an educational program where students work in pairs to acquire knowledge and then use their expertise within a team of six to solve real world problems. The program is designed to reach students of different learning styles and learning levels, and students use high-tech equipment and hands-on activities. Materials for visual, auditory and kinesthetic learners are available, and Gaines said Chaffee’s presentations are an essential contribution to her class.

“Norman helps the students connect careers and the importance of education to prepare for the real world,” Gaines said. “He provides a real-world interest to the students on a higher level. This challenges the students to learn more and work harder in all subject areas. I can see this momentum continuing to build every week with his visits.” 

In his most recent visit, Chaffee brought several small attitude-control rocket engines (borrowed from NASA) he personally worked on from the Gemini and Apollo programs. He explained to the students how the space shuttle has 51 different rocket engines each performing individual functions such as moving the shuttle up, down, forward, backward and rotating side-to-side.  

“Because of my experiences, I can help with technical programs in the classroom focusing on robotics or propulsion technology,” Chaffee said. “I can also talk about space history including the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs, how to go to the Moon and Mars and more. My enthusiasm for education is boundless, and I enjoy sharing this information with students who are interested in this line of work.” 

Chaffee said his goal in doing volunteer work is to allow students to see the fun, excitement, challenge and rewards of a technical career. 

“I want to help students see that—with hard work—a technical career is a great possibility for them as it was for me,” said Chaffee. “Our nation is faltering in its production of technical professionals, and to preserve our place as a pre-eminent technological power, we must encourage young people to enter these fields.” 

Chaffee is doing exactly that. After helping him one day with a class project, Pasadena Memorial senior Eduardo Cobos said Chaffee inspired him to follow his dreams of becoming an engineer.

“Working with such an intelligent and experienced man is great,” Cobos said. “His words enlighten me every time and reveal wonders that many people would love to know. It has been such a pleasure and honor to work side-by-side with Mr. Chaffee. I hope to keep seeing him throughout the year.”

While Chaffee’s relationship with Memorial students is new, his volunteerism in Pasadena ISD is not. Chaffee began volunteering in Pasadena schools in the late 1960s as a NASA guest speaker in his own children’s classes at Fisher Elementary, Park View Intermediate and Sam Rayburn High School.  

As Deputy Chief of Automation and Robotics at NASA in the 1990s, Chaffee became even more involved in the district through the FIRST Robotics Competition when the Administrator of NASA dedicated funds for all 10 NASA Centers around the country to support Robotics teams in their areas. NASA awarded Pasadena ISD’s Robotics team with an initial $5,000 grant to get started, and Chaffee served as an advisor to the team for a couple years after he retired.

“My major contributions to the district’s Robotics team were to provide them with some background in robotics technology and help them understand the nature of the competition,” Chaffee said. “I also worked with them on the engineering processes involved from defining a set of design options, to selecting an option, to manufacturing, testing and training for the competition. The students did all of the technical work—I just tried to keep them on a productive, efficient pathway to the end product.” 

Chaffee has also played an integral role in Pasadena ISD’s newest districtwide mentoring program, GEAR UP. GEAR UP (Gaining Early Awareness and Readiness for Undergraduate Programs) is a six-year initiative aimed at helping students realize their academic potential as well as the reality of a college education and business and community mentors are essential to the program. Seventh graders from eight intermediate schools in the district are participating in the program, which they will follow through high school graduation.  

Chaffee presented at GEAR UP’s Robotics Academy at Park View Intermediate over the summer where students built robots from a kit. He also presented on Aerospace Engineering to students and their parents in the program last spring at Sam Rayburn. 

“Mr. Chaffee represents many years of experience and knowledge,” said Park View’s GEAR UP campus coordinator Laurie Etnyre. “He shows the relevance of taking classes such as math, English and science and how they apply in the work place. I hope our students can take away from his presentation the excitement of creating and building equipment that will make a positive difference in people’s lives. Our students can gain so much from professionals in the work place.” 

Chaffee earned his master’s in Chemical Engineering and attended Rice University and the University of Tulsa. After a brief career in the petrochemical industry, Chaffee came to NASA in Houston in 1962 and worked until his retirement in late 1996.  He served in a variety of positions during his career at NASA including Deputy Chief of Propulsion, Chief Engineer for the International Space Station, Program Manager for Lunar and Mars Exploration, Deputy Chief of Robotics and Deputy Chief of Biomedical Engineering. Since his retirement, Chaffee has been an active volunteer with the NASA Education Office.  

“I love working with teachers and students to give them a sense of the wonderfully rewarding career I have had in the aerospace industry and working for NASA,” Chaffee said. “I hope the students gain a sense of the huge career possibilities they have before them in technical areas (science, technology, engineering and math), and particularly, that they personalize that awareness so they say to themselves ‘I can do that.’ In my efforts, I hope I am helping to recruit the next generation of space explorers—the engineers, scientists and astronauts who will lead our nation and the world back to the Moon, to stay, and to Mars and beyond.”