Alan Shephard: First American In Space
Senior Division
Category: Website
By: Cassidy Wallow, Anna Wenger, and Emma Wenger
We decided to choose Alan Shepard and his mission within the Space Race as our topic because we were initially interested in space exploration. As we researched topics related to space, we were intrigued by the first American in space. As we dug deeper into the concept of who he was, we knew this was the topic for us. Alan Shepard is important to the United States history as he began our victories in the Space Race. He also gave America their first look into space and this progressed NASA’s knowledge of space, eventually leading them to becoming the biggest and most advanced space program worldwide.
As we began researching we found many crucial websites along with two books. We started our research with searching for books. Our school website allows us to look up a main topic idea and it gives us books that contain the certain topic. Our school library didn’t have many options revolving around Alan Shephard but the two we found were very insightful. As we moved forward in the means of research we began our online exploration. Starting with a broader idea, we looked up, “Alan Shepard, first American in space.”. After finding many websites accompanying paramount information, we concluded that we needed to narrow down the main idea. So we initiated a smaller span of information.
As all of our information was essential in the creation of our website, two resources were the most useful. The first resource is a book, being a secondary source, called Project Mercury by Ray Spangenburg and Kit Moser. Project Mercury includes information on the Space Race, Mercury 7’s takeoff, and the Cold War. All of these topics gave us valid material that aided our website. The most important idea with Alan Shephard is the Space Race because ultimately we won against the Soviet Union. The other most useful source is source number 30, a primary source. It’s a picture of the capsule in the water showing that the mission was successful. We thought that this was a very prominent source because it’s the evidence proving Alan Shephard’s victory.
After gathering our information it was time to begin the production of our website. This was one of the biggest setbacks we encountered. Obviously we were unfamiliar with a new website creator. Learning how to format, add multimedia, etc was foreign to us. After overcoming obstacles, we started getting used to the unfamiliar format.
This year's topic is breaking barriers. Alan Shepard broke not only a physical barrier but also a scientific barrier. The physical barrier is breaking the atmosphere. He defied gravity traveling in the Freedom 7 through the atmosphere. He helped space discoveries progress as they learned more about space. Eventually leading to the satellite, Sputnik, being placed in space. This is important to history because without him space discovery for the U.S. could not have advanced any further than pictures of space. They would not have discovered crucial discoveries of the atmosphere.