MOON LANDING INSPIRED AREA YOUTH TO BE SICENCE TEACHER

DEXTER -- Thirty years after Neil Armstrong and Edwin A. Aldrin climbed gingerly from their Apollo 11 moon ladder to the rock-strewn surface of the Sea of Tranquility, a high school science teacher remembers every step.

Charles Cooper, now a science teacher at Dexter High School, was just 10 when the astronauts walked on the moon. But the memory survives.

"You betcha I remember the landing -- I got to watch color TV," Cooper said. He remembered going to a friend's house to watch the landing late in the evening on a relatively new color television.

"It was incredible -- I was so excited," he said. "I didn't know why. I didn't have any clue as to how it would change things. But it was pretty exciting and I knew they had traveled a great distance."

Now Cooper can see just how much has changed in the world of technology, thanks in part to that moon landing.

"Technology, computerization, food preparation and medicine have all changed," he said. "They had to deal with some astronauts getting colds, so they had to work with scientists to devise simple remedies that people could take and still function with colds and viruses."

But creating new products isn't all. The moon landing "also changed communication techniques," he said. "Because of the space program we have satellite technology for communications with broadcast networks and the military."

But much of the technology advances are lost on today's students, Cooper said. "They take it all for granted. We've become jaded. As a society we've become very, very used to the benefits of science and so we take it for granted."