{"id":151425,"date":"2024-07-03T09:48:31","date_gmt":"2024-07-03T13:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=151425"},"modified":"2024-07-03T09:48:31","modified_gmt":"2024-07-03T13:48:31","slug":"moon-tree-a-symbol-of-wright-state-grads-can-do-attitude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2024\/07\/03\/moon-tree-a-symbol-of-wright-state-grads-can-do-attitude\/","title":{"rendered":"Moon Tree a symbol of Wright State grad\u2019s can-do attitude"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Lake Campus graduate Rachel Tebbe successfully applied for a tree grown from a seed that orbited the moon for Coldwater Elementary School, where she was a student teacher.<\/p><\/div>\n

Over the summer, many teachers usually take a break from school duties. Not so much for Rachel Tebbe.<\/p>\n

Every day she returns to Coldwater Elementary School to water a tree. It\u2019s not your usual tree, and Tebbe is not your usual teacher.<\/p>\n

To Tebbe, who earned her bachelor\u2019s degree in elementary education<\/a> from Wright State University\u2013Lake Campus in the spring, that tree \u201cis my baby right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

It grew from a seed that orbited the moon in 2022 on the Artemis II uncrewed mission \u2014 hence it\u2019s called a Moon Tree.<\/p>\n

Tebbe did the paperwork that landed that tree, now about five feet tall, at Coldwater in May, much to the delight of the third-grade class where she was student-teaching and the rest of the school.<\/p>\n

The roots of securing the Moon Tree go back to last fall. Tebbe, who was a senior at Wright State\u2019s Lake Campus<\/a>, created a science-based project involving the community for her science method course.<\/p>\n

Tebbe credits Betsy Jo Crites, education coordinator at the Lake Campus, with suggesting the Moon Tree. The application process for one of the 50 available trees would be arduous, but Crites was confident in Tebbe\u2019s ability to write a well-received application.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe knew I was an author and would be good at it,\u201d said\u00a0Tebbe, who published \u201cTime,\u201d a young-adult dystopian fantasy novel<\/a>, when she was a high school senior in her hometown of St. Henry.<\/p>\n

Tebbe completed the application for the tree last September. Then, silence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe heard nothing, so I assumed we hadn\u2019t gotten a tree because there were about 1,300 applicants and only 50 trees,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Then things happened quickly. Tebbe got word from NASA and the U.S. Forest Service that a Moon Tree would be delivered to the Coldwater school. The sweet gum arrived a week and a half later, and it was planted with the help of a local landscaping company.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy application had to come up with a detailed care plan for how to protect the tree and for it to survive,\u201d Tebbe said.<\/p>\n

A big part of the application was how the tree would be used to encourage education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.<\/p>\n

\u201cSTEM is becoming a bigger thing in a lot of schools,\u201d Tebbe said. \u201cIn the application, I discussed how I was a woman in STEM, and for a long time STEM was thought of just for boys, but it\u2019s not. I applied saying that STEM subjects are for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tree is located by the school\u2019s football field, off a side road near another sweet gum planted in 2016.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s nothing to denote how special the tree is \u2014 for now. Tebbe said a planting party will be scheduled with activities and a contest to name the tree.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce it\u2019s named, we\u2019ll get a plaque with information about the tree,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Tebbe visits the Moon Tree daily to be sure it is well \u2013 and if she can\u2019t be there, she said the school generously steps in.<\/p>\n

Tebbe, who married and moved with her husband to Coldwater in November, is writing a sequel to \u201cTime,\u201d which she published under her maiden name, Werling, called \u201cEscape,\u201d which she hopes will be published next year.<\/p>\n

Tebbe spoke glowingly of her experience at Wright State\u2019s Lake Campus.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything I know about the classroom came about through my education,\u201d she said. \u201cWright State gives you the opportunity to be in three different classrooms to observe for a semester and a fourth to do teaching.\u201d<\/p>\n

She will always be part of the Coldwater school because of the Moon Tree, which she said is a monument not only to STEM but also of hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal is for it to be a symbol that anything\u2019s possible,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is a small town, and the feeling in small towns is that they get overlooked. The tree will stand as a monument that you can do anything you put your mind to.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Lake Campus graduate Rachel Tebbe successfully applied for a tree grown from a seed that orbited the moon for Coldwater Elementary School, where she was a student teacher. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":66,"featured_media":151433,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,733,4309,4299,725,731,715],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-151425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-alumni","category-alumni-association","category-alumni-profile","category-home-news-sidebar","category-lake-campus","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/66"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151425"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":151443,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151425\/revisions\/151443"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}