3rd Annual Faraday's Holiday Event

We are once again preparing for the annual Faraday's Holiday Event. We're still at the Whittier Center, 290 N 400 E, Logan, UT 84321. Suggested donations are still $2 adults, $1 teens, & $0.50 kids, although we do welcome any additional donation you wish to make. The Keynote Speaker this year will be Jens Trauntvein from ATK. New this year will be Stellarium presentations in the Pink Room (or Commons Room, since it got painted over the summer & is no longer pink) at 6:30 & 8:00. Mr Trauntvein's presentation will be at about 7:15, with Neil Dabb's traditional home science demonstration immediately after, followed by snacks, a craft, and visiting the booths of the various participating companies and organizations.

One thing we do need is a projector, so if you know of where we can borrow one for the night, please e-mail me

AWHC & ACC

Yesterday I met with Chris Schultz out at the American West Heritage Center in preparation for the Giant Star Party on 12 August 2011. I will once again be giving Stellarium Presentations about the Perseid meteor shower in the Livery Stable at 7:30, 8:30, 9:30, & 10:30 pm. The event goes from 7 pm to 11 pm, and there will be pony rides, wagon rides, storytellers, Dr Quakenbush (sorry Dr Q if I spelled that wrong), a glow-in-the-dark carnival, and a gunfight! Anyone who brings a telescope gets in free, otherwise it's $6.

Meanwhile, on the Artemisian Costumers Challenge I haven't made much progress. Moving will do that to you. Oh, btw, my hubby & I bought a house! I did, however, find some linen curtains at a yard sale for 50¢.

Yuri's Night

Today was the 50th anniversary of the first person in space, Yuri Gagarin. It was also the 30th anniversary of the first Space Shuttle and the 10th anniversary of the first Yuri's Night. I wasn't at any of those, but I had been in Graz, Austria in 2000, when the UN Space Generation Advisory Council was formed, and Loretta Hidalgo (now Whitesides) had the idea for Yuri's Night. For the last ten years, I've tried to get something going in whatever town I was in for Yuri's Night. But I don't like huge parties, such as New York, Moscow, DC, and LA have, and really don't have the contacts to put on such a party. But this year I finally organized a Yuri's Night Cache Valley. It was not a huge party. In fact, it was only 6 of us at my in-laws house, and mostly we just rehashed a lot of what had been talked about at our last board meeting (although there were a few other topics of conversation). We had chips & dip & lemonade to snack on, and we finally got to meet the college student who has been working with David on grant proposals for a class this semester.

Getting the Word Out

Yesterday I was substituting at River Heights Elementary, one of the schools I had taken the Jr Engineering StarLab to in 2009. One of the teachers at lunch was talking about when to schedule taking his class down to the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake. I told him how we're working to get a planetarium here in Cache Valley, and about the Faraday's Holiday Event we are planning for December 28. That's right, we have a date. It will be at the Whittier Center once again, from 7pm - 8:30pm. I still have to take the check to the Whittier Center, but if everybody's schedules work out, I hope to be able to do that today. Then we start "officially" advertising it. I'll put it on Facebook, on both the StarHouse Discovery Center group page and my page. I'll also look into putting it as an event that people can RSVP to. I'll post it on Twitter, at the public library, look into getting it on the marquee at the Opera House in Downtown Logan, and of course update our website.

Last year, we had 80 people come to the event, and 7 booths of organizations presenting their work. This year, we hope to have more.

Around the World in 50 Minutes

Today in Astronomy Camp, I put a list of a bunch of topics in astronomy history up for the kids to see, & had them pick one. I also let only one kid have any given topic. There were 23 things on the list, & only 10 kids in the class, so there was plenty to choose from. Six kids wanted Ancient Greek Astronomy! So I had all six choose a second topic, & said that possibly one of them could do Ancient Greek Astronomy, depending on what else got picked. The very next topic, two of those kids wanted, so I let them decide between themselves who was going to do which. Another kid, though, all he wanted to do was Greek Astronomy, & nothing else. Since he wouldn't pick something else, I used the rand() function in a spreadsheet program to pick one for him. I think that kid was one who, during introductions yesterday, had said his parents' were making him come to Astronomy Camp. The entire time he was resistant to doing anything.

Once all the kids had picked a topic, we went down to the computer lab. Starting with Astronomy for Kids, they each read about the topic they had chosen, then used Google searches to find pictures, and sometimes more information, about their topic. I gave them an hour and a half to work on that, & those who finished sooner were given the choice of doing a second topic, or playing on Flash Planetarium, which I had used yesterday to help them learn to use their planispheres. They used a word processing program to make some notes & save their pictures, which I then saved to my jump drive. The last hour of Camp today, we went back to the classroom, I plugged my jump drive into the computer there that was connected to the projector, & they each gave a little 5 minute presentation on their topic.

I also did some preparation for the next couple of days. Tomorrow, Michelle Larson from the USU Physics Department, is coming to talk to the kids for about half an hour, so I talked to her about that, & also gave her directions to the room. I also talked to the Logan District Computer Specialists & arranged to get Stellarium on some computers for Thursday.

I think things are going really well.

ps. There is also a Harry Potter Camp going on at the same time, except it is 5 weeks long. They are mostly doing science activities. I talked to the guy in charge, & they are spending a week on astronomy. I got his e-mail address, so I'm going to try to keep in touch with him over the next year, & maybe get to be part of that next year.

Finally!

The 501(c)3 application is finally complete. By Monday, it will be in the mail. This means we can finally start applying for grants. Time to start writing. :-)

After our board meeting this afternoon, I went out to the Logan Airport for the Celebration of Flight. Got to see a B-17 Flying Fortress: probably one of the coolest planes ever. I also talked to a number of people, pilots, a guy from Exxon, a Civil Air Patrol major, & a lady from Channel 8 KUTA. I left business cards with most of these people, and the lady from Channel 8 would like to have me come in to the studio to talk about the upcoming events we are going to be involved with.

We are going to be very busy in the coming weeks. On 12 June, we will be at the Family & Children's Expo, part of USU's Unlocking Your Child’s Potential Conference. That same evening, I will be out in Trenton, UT at a Giant Star Party for all of the Northern Utah Star Trek Clubs. Then starting on Monday, 14 June, Neil Dabb & I will be teaching at a summer camp for Logan City's Gifted & Talented elementary students. The camp will run for four days. Neil will teach in the mornings about weather, & I will teach in the afternoons about Astronomy. As soon as I am done on Thursday, I will be taking off for Firth, ID, where I will be teaching a Beginning Astronomy class for the Society of Creative Anachronism. And before all of that starts, next Friday, the 11th, is the monthly Cache Valley Stargazers meeting.

I'm feeling a little overwhelmed at the moment. This seems like a lot to do, in a very short time, & I only have a week to prepare.

Plans

We have plans going forward on several fronts. The first is to get the 501(c)3 paperwork finished, so we can then start applying for grants lots of places. The second is a presence at upcoming events put on by several other entities in the area. The third is the possibility of getting a site & possibly a building. Fourth, we are looking into the possibility of sponsoring a writing contest.

The 501(c)3 status: it's going forward, slowly. As usual. One of these days we'll actually get it finished. We got a letter from some legal company offering to help with it. They didn't say so in the letter, but I'm sure it would cost us some money, & we're already most of the way done as it is.

Upcoming events: I will be manning a booth for the local Renaissance Faire on May 22, 2010 at the Whittier Center. My booth will be making portable sundials. I did this last Saturday as a workshop for kids of the regional group of the Society for Creative Anachronism. It was a big hit. There is also Physics Day at Lagoon, sponsored by the USU Physics Department. We also decided that we should let the various schools know that we are available for & would like to participate in judging the Science Fairs. My task is to talk to some of the high school photo/multimedia teachers I know & see if they would be willing to have their classes work on some signage for us.

Site & Building: It's going to be years, yet, before we actually have a permanent building, but meanwhile, there is the Discovery simulator, which was built in a trailer home. The USU Trailer Park is slowly emptying out, but the university doesn't have current plans for that area. There also happens to be a community center in the Trailer Park. A woman from USU Housing will be at our next meeting in two weeks to discuss the possibility of us renting a pad for the trailer and using the community center as a classroom, so that we could run missions next school year. We also have a concept sketch for a building, & are looking into the possibility of having the CAD class at one of the local high schools make up some 3-D computer models for us.

Writing Contest: This would happen next year, students would be able to enter some form of technical writing, we would probably have several genre categories, as well as grade level categories. We would need to get the teachers behind this. From my experience with the RFF contests for CONduit, if the teacher is not encouraging the students to participate, then no students will enter.

So, there you have it. Progress is still slow, but it is happening. I'm going to get those building concept sketches up on the website this weekend.

Today's Meeting

We had our semi-monthly board meeting today. We are planning some fundraising events for the coming year: in the spring a "bike-a-thon," a fancy dinner & silent auction in the summer, a "Fall Fling," and the Second Annual Faraday's Holiday Event. We've also received inquiries from several schools on when we'll be able to come visit them with the Jr Science & Astronomy program. The answer to that is "when we have the equipment." We have a few small activities, but nothing with the "WOW factor" - the main thing we need to get our hands on is a portable planetarium, such as a Geodome or StarLab. We are also making progress on filling out the 501(c)3 forms.