the goal? make science more attractive to kids. northrop grummon officials say they came up with this because of what they call a crisis in american industry. is there an overall concern that american students are falling behind students from asia and other places in science and math? is that what s behind this? yes, that is the basis behind the program. we want to insure that there s continuous pipeline of engineers and scientists to come and work at northrop grummon and companies like northrop. the company needs that pipeline because many of its divisions require strict security clearances and therefore, open only to u.s. citizens. part of this collaboration with teachers is to wipe away the stigma of science. i always tell them, if you call someone a nerd but they re the ones going to be making money down the road. northrop grummon does this several times a year in different regions, has taken thousands of teachers on flights. but whether it helps make america more competiti
and a reporter in jump suits lying on the floor of a 747. it might seem an unlikely setting. but one corporate giant sees this as the frontline in its fight to keep america competitive in business. this is the visual they want kids to see. their teachers floating out of control. it s a program called weightless flights of discovery run by the northrop grummon foundation, a division of that major defense firm. the company grabs science and math teachers from across the u.s. to get on these flights, videotape themselves having a blast at zero gravity and show it to their students. experiments are mixed in and are purposely part of the fun. to see if body weight had any affect on their travel time. you toss aid teacher? we tossed a teacher. that s cool. how does it work? we re seated when the plane first starts to climb. after we level off, we all have to lie on the floor of this padded cabin. we re taken on a series of so-called parabolas.