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While some children may dream of talking with astronauts or meeting the president, one group of Parkland Middle School students did both during a visit to the White House last week.

Benjamin T. OuYang, principal of the Aspen Hill school, said he was surprised to receive a call from the White House March 23 asking if five students could join President Obama the next day to speak with astronauts aboard the International Space Station.

Parkland, which was one of four schools invited to attend, was chosen because of its aerospace technology magnet program, he said.

With only an hour to decide who would go, OuYang and his staff chose three sixth-graders, one seventh-grader and one eighth-grader based on their academic performance and good behavior. Donna Blaney, Parkland's magnet coordinator, joined them.

Looking at a screen set up in the Roosevelt Room and speaking through a phone, Obama, two senators and the 16 students from Aspen Hill, Washington, D.C., and Fairfax, Va., peppered the 10 astronauts with questions.

"It was like a completely different experience and a once-in-a-million chance," Christian Alfaro, a 13-year-old Silver Spring seventh-grader, said of meeting the president. "And to meet him at such a young age was so cool."

The students described Obama as "nice, funny and tall."

"The president was just like a normal guy," said 11-year-old Tenay Graham, a sixth grade student from Silver Spring.

Sandra Puetate, a sixth-grader, asked the astronauts if they love doing their job. She is considering a career as a doctor or astronaut.

"They said yes," the 12-year-old Gaithersburg resident said.

The five students said they were amazed by the way one astronaut's long hair floated in zero gravity, and how another could do a back flip in midair.

Anastasia Laurenzo, an eighth-grade student, said the crew members also told them they were trying to learn new things while visiting outer space.

"They talked about how they were doing experiments with fire and salmonella," the 13-year-old Gaithersburg resident said.

Seven of the astronauts were a part of the space shuttle Discovery mission, which visited the International Space Station for 13 days before returning to Earth Saturday, according to NASA's Web site.

The students were given NASA patches and pins and a box of M&Ms with the president's seal as souvenirs, said 12-year-old Eric Le.

"It was really exciting to be chosen to go, and it was really cool and awesome," the sixth-grade Aspen Hill student said. "I'll never forget it."