On 20 July, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Edwin (Buzz) Irwin stepped onto the lunar surface. One step for a couple of Americans and one big step for mankind. To commemorate the 50th anniversary of this historical event, the Queensland Museum is presently hosting a NASA exhibition and it was this event that the Year 11 Modern History visited on Friday, 17 May. Students were able to view the silent space movies that inspired the first space explorations, up to stepping inside a life-size model of a space shuttle.
Next year our first Year 12 ATAR class in Modern History will be studying Space Exploration from 1957 and it was a great opportunity (perhaps once in a lifetime), for our students to view up close and personal some of the objects that had been to the moon and back; and to read and hear the stories of those who led mankind’s journey into space.
Written by Dr. Hine, Year 11 Modern History Teacher (and witness to the first moon landing on a black and white television screen at Monto State School in 1969)