Before the discussions, several teachers expressed reservations.
"I don't know what they'll say," said Trinity Elementary teacher Shannon Stevens. "We haven't talked about space yet, and I don't know what kind of answers they're going to give."
Despite frequent outbursts of silliness, the kids surpassed all expectations.
When one student, Monique Rosas, described aliens with three eyes, the rest of the class enthusiastically rang in with similar images: antennas, four arms, green faces.
One girl shouted, "20 eyes," an idea with which most were in giggling agreement.
Three things you can do with aliens
Aliens were a big theme for all of the classes, possibly because the students seemed to be drawing on Star Wars and the Power Rangers as their primary source for space knowledge.
Most wanted to explore the possibilities of coexisting with out-of-this-world beings.
Joel Moon said he wants to work and live with aliens in space and Jennifer Abarca wanted to color with them.
However, Sergio Rodriguez took a more hostile stance. He hoped to "trap" aliens, although he thought their flying saucers -- which he drew on the blackboard -- are "cooler than our rockets."
Remarkably, even though aliens proved a provocative subject, most of the students claimed not to believe in them, at least when asked directly.
Perhaps peer pressure was involved -- when charismatic class leader Daniel Walker proclaimed that aliens weren't real, the rest of the class followed suit.
"The outside of the world"
Beyond the thought of three-eyed creatures, the students showed an impressive knowledge of the universe. Many of the students gave reasonable descriptions of space and the various objects in it.
Walker stated simply, "Space is the outside of the world," while Michael Warwick described space as "where all of the planets float around in the air."
Other students described planets, astronauts and walking on the moon.
Most looked to space as a backdrop for spectacular adventures ahead. One student wanted to make her way to the sun, but her classmates argued it would be too hot to live there, instead electing to visit other planets or the moon.
When asked, "Why would you want to go into space?" Alexis Chavez replied, "you get to float around."
Jared Van Otterdyk said he wanted to ride on a rocket ship because they are "very fast," continuing with a detailed description of the boosters and the firepower that launches a rocket past the earth's atmosphere.
Keith Walker knew a lot about Mars, where "it's really cold and nothing grows there."
Jaime Rodriguez described his telescope and some of the constellations he has seen to the class. And once Shane Romero was done explaining a scene from The Phantom Menace, he defined meteors for his peers.
"Became fire and smoke"
The most impressive story, though, was Michael Warwick's retelling of news footage of the 1986 Challenger explosion, an event that took place some eight years before he was born.
As he explained, standing in front of the class, "the rocket was going up and up. Everyone was looking up into sky when about 15 seconds later, the spaceship blew up in the air and became fire and smoke."
The sobering account reminded many of the kids that space might be fun, but it's still a long way from home. As Jennifer Abarca noted, "I don't think we will go in space, because our parents would really worry."
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