How This AFA Leader Is Taking Space Education to New Continents

Laurie Orth is on a mission to share space education through music. Orth, one of AFA’s 2024 Emerging Leaders, is taking her love of music education and melding it with her passion for all things space to transform how young people learn about space and music. Not only is she accomplishing amazing things in classrooms around her home in Georgia, but around the world—as far as Antarctica and as high as the International Space Station.

Who is Laurie Orth and how did a music teacher get involved in AFA and in space education? 

She first encountered AFA in 2016 while assisting on her son’s AFA CyberPatriot team. After the program set her son on a trajectory toward a degree in cybersecurity in 2020, Orth was invited to join in the reinvigoration of AFA’s East Georgia Chapter (previously Savannah Chapter) by the chapter’s president Edward Hood. Her zeal for AFA’s STEM programs led her to become the Chapter’s VP for Aerospace Education. This included administering the Chapter’s Teacher of the Year program and meeting the National Teachers of the Year at AFA’s annual Air, Space & Cyber Conference. Her leadership roles in AFA expanded as she became an Emerging Leader in the 2024 cohort and was also elected AFA’s East Georgia Chapter President, a position she holds today. 

Orth’s interest in space exploration and rockets directly aligns with her work at AFA. Little did she know how much it would align when she began her entrepreneurial ventures in 2012, teaching general music classes to the homeschool community in Augusta, Ga. Now she’s an independent contractor at the Jessye Norman School of the Arts and teaches music at Challenge Prep Academy. Orth has expanded her classroom instruction for a small group of students to the introduction of space and music education to students across the nation through the YouTube channel she began in 2017, Laurie Orth Music Teacher.

A proponent of STEAM education (which adds an A for “Arts” to the elements of STEM), published her first book, “Rocket Recorder: Volume One”  in 2019. The book is an innovative music workbook for recorder students that introduces space exploration and rockets. In 2023, she launched a digital companion product, “Rocket Recorder – Satellite Edition.”

Orth also serves as a Space Station Ambassador for the ISS National Laboratory’s Center for Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) program and is a Teacher Liaison with the Space Foundation. She sings professionally in her community and is a member of the Georgia Music Educators Association and the National Association for Music Educators. 

Most recently and significantly is Orth’s endeavor to reach students internationally as a 2024-2025 Polar Fellow for the Polar STEAM program, sponsored by Oregon State University and the National Science Foundation. Through this program, Orth collaborates with Dr. Amy Lowitz, a scientist with the Event Horizon Telescope, to create a new musical resource for young people. So far, Laurie and Dr. Lowitz have transcended the traditional classroom and provided videos and music on Laurie’s social and media platforms to help young people understand the breadth and depth of science being explored in Antarctica. 

This dynamic emerging leader is demonstrating how a small spark of interest in any aspect of AFA can light a fire in people who have not been involved with the military. Besides the AFA positions, Laurie also works on the AFA Advocates to Inspire Military Service (AIMS) working group, on the AFA Awards Tiger Team, and with the AFA Chapter Development Training program. She epitomizes the value of AFA’s educational programs, introducing educators and students around the world to AFA’s mission.

Thanks to Laurie Orth, Music Educator and STEAM teacher extraordinaire, AFA is seeing innovative teachers and leaders in action!