Rats in Space!

NORMAL -- Kayla Berry, a Fairview Elementary School fifth-grader, would like to be an astronaut or a dancer when she grows up.

"I want to float and see how light I'd be," Berry said.

She learned on Friday that rats don't share her fascination with weightlessness, however.

Kayla was one of about 240 second- to fifth-grade students at her school Friday who had a chance to meet a former astronaut in person and hear about her experience in space. They were especially interested in seeing a video showing astronauts enjoying weightlessness in space.

Fairview was one of several stops for Dr. Margaret Rhea Seddon. She also talked on Friday to more than 500 students at Fairview and Bent elementary schools and the Challenger Learning Center. On Thursday, she talked to more than 850 student at Family Science Night at Illinois State University's Bone Student Center.

"It was awesome," Fairview fifth-grader Antonio Nelson said of Seddon's presentation. "I always wanted to be an astronaut -- to go into space and look at stuff you've never seen before," he said.

Students were especially interested in the experiments with rats in space done by Seddon, a medical doctor who now works with Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.

"Rats like to hold on when they are in space," she said, pointing out on the video one of 48 white rats on one of her missions. It didn't look so thrilled with weightlessness.

Jaclin Bennington, 10, a Fairview Elementary School student, who has a pet rat, said she really liked seeing the rat in space.

"thats one small step for a rat, one giant hop for ratkind..."