NASA scientist Simon Clemett brought with him real estate worth $22,000 a milligram, part of the Sea of Tranquility brought back by Apollo 11.
Clemett visited the school as part of a science week.
"It's great to see their faces, to see their reactions when they know what they're looking at," Clemett said.
This was the first Science Week at Vargas Elementary as long as anyone can remember. What makes it unusual is that in a time of state-wide education cutbacks, it took a parent to get this started.
"It takes a parent to leverage whatever resources you have to enhance the education of your children if you know that something is missing," parent Maria Dulay said.
Dulay did feel that need. She has a PhD in chemistry and worried that the curriculum did not include enough science. She persuaded the district to let her invite in old friends like Clemett to speak at the school. He paid his own way from Houston.
It is a lesson beyond science. It is not just what you know, but whom, along with finding the willpower to see a vision to reality.
