Rocket fuel in a math class : Pair of space engineers are launching Marlboro math students into space

reformer.com · Feb 26, 2026 · Collected from GDELT

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Linda Fuhrman, a retired NASA employee, is volunteering her time at Marlboro Elementary School to help teach four 8th-grade students Algebra. She is guiding them as they try to establish different colonies on other worlds in our Solar System by using different mathematical equations.By Kristopher Radder, Brattleboro Reformer MARLBORO — On a chilly morning at Marlboro Elementary, three eighth graders gather around a table strewn with notebooks, laptops, and a stack of planetary data sheets. They’re not just doing math homework. They’re planning human settlements on the moons of Saturn and Jupiter."We are colonizing Enceladus, an ice moon of Saturn," said Theo Rosner.His classmate, Felix Stavely, chimes in that he’s working on Io, "a volcano moon, not icy."The students speak with the matter‑of‑fact confidence of junior mission specialists, not middle‑schoolers in rural Vermont.This is Algebra I — but not the way most adults remember it.The project is the brainchild of math teacher Jesslyn Mullet and two newcomers to the community: Linda and Don Fuhrman, long-time aerospace engineers who spent their careers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The couple moved to Marlboro after decades in California, bringing with them a lifetime of experience designing spacecraft, mentoring young engineers, and, as Linda jokes, leaving "my fingerprints on Mars" as a member of the team that worked on Sojourner, the Mars rover that landed on the red planet in 1997.Now, they’re helping local students test out of Algebra I by teaching it through the lens of interplanetary colonization.Students choose a celestial body, research its environment, and design a viable human colony. Every algebraic concept — from linear equations to exponential functions — becomes a tool for solving real engineering problems."When we were learning about the masses of the planets and their gravity, we learned about scientific notation," said Stavely. "It’s a more fun way to learn that."Another adds that they’re calculating safe entry trajectories, resource needs, and even food production."We’re learning algebra at the same time we’re finding ways to colonize these planets," said Owen Gibbons. "We can have different goals ... one is going to be a mining colony where we’re going to mine the ice and use that to ship it to other planets."The students talk about these tasks with the casual fluency of people who have internalized the math because they need it — not because it’s on a worksheet.For Mullet, the project solves a long‑standing challenge. Every year, a handful of eighth graders want to take Algebra I early, but the school’s small size makes it difficult to run a separate class."I have to teach four other math classes," she said. "I don’t have the time."When she met Linda and Don last year, everything clicked. The couple had already offered to help with science and math curriculum. Jesslyn had the students. Together, they had an idea."Doing it in the context of this project is a way to make it very real," she says. "We’re just really fortunate to have community experts with this background."The collaboration is intense. Jesslyn and Linda spend nights and weekends designing problems that mirror real engineering tasks."If we need to look at linear functions, what kind of problems can I come up with that are real things people do when they’re building missions to other planets?" asked Linda.Linda and Don spent decades at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, but are semi‑retired now.Don lights up when he describes showing students the Fibonacci sequence and the golden ratio."To see the light bulbs go on ... trying to show how math relates to the natural world ... it’s amazing."He’s also teaching the students computer‑aided design using SketchUp.Once they calculate how many launch vehicles they need, and how many spacecraft they need, he says, they can design the actual spacecraft in 3D.For Linda, the joy is in the moment when a student suddenly grasps a concept."Some days when we discover something together in the math, and they get this look on their face ... it just makes my day."The eighth graders are quick to say they’re not doing this just to get ahead — though the incentive is real. If they pass the test at the end of the year, they can skip Algebra I in high school and start in Geometry.But the deeper motivation is curiosity."I like math a lot," said Rosen. "It’s interesting how we get to do something more interesting with it instead of just learning math. We get to apply it to so many cool things — like being astronauts and settling on different planets."The project isn’t just imaginative. It’s rigorous.A few weeks ago, the students calculated how much water they would need to transport to their colony if they didn’t recycle any. The answer stunned them."It was millions of tons of water," Linda recalls. "Just to keep the humans alive on the journey."Next up: exponential functions, which they’ll use to model food production."Once they get to their colony, they’re going to have to grow food," Linda said. "They have to figure out how much food they need to bring with them until the food they’re growing is enough."For a small Vermont school, having two former NASA engineers in the classroom is an opportunity you can't pass up. For Linda and Don, it’s a chance to give back — and to keep their own love of discovery alive."I’m doing a lot of mentoring," Don says. "Trying to foster critical thinking."As the students return to their work — calculating trajectories, designing spacecraft, debating the merits of icy moons versus volcanic ones — it’s clear this is more than a math class. It’s a launchpad.They may not all become astronauts or engineers. They may not remember every formula. But they will remember what it felt like to use math to solve real problems, to imagine new worlds, and to see adults in their community treat their ideas with seriousness and respect.And that, in its own way, is rocket fuel.Henry Hobbie is also a member of the class but was absent the day the Reformer visited.