Friday Surprise

This week I was substituting for James at Thomas Edison Charter School, while he was in D.C. After school, I met with Neil, Arno, & Levi Arno had the surprise. Before Jr Engineering shut down, he had contacted Energy Solutions about possible funding. A couple of weeks ago, he contacted them again, to let them know that Jr Engineering had been shut down, and that we are working to continue the mission of bringing hands-on science education to elementary schools in the intermountain west. The main thing he wanted was to let them know how to contact us. They sent us $1,000!

Thank you, Energy Solutions!

We took a picture of the four of us with the check, which will be posted on our website as soon as I get the file from Arno.

My current task is to track down the rumor that as part of the International Year of Astronomy, each state would be able to get a StarLab portable planetarium. No one knows where the one for Utah is. We think it should have gone to Weber State University, but Stacy Pallin, the astronomy professor there, hasn't heard anything about it. So now I need to try and track down where the ones for Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, & Wyoming were supposed to go. Since we are planning on serving students in all five states, we might as well try to get resources from all five as well.

Luckily, I'm not sick

But it seems like just about everyone else is. Only three of us showed up for the meeting early Tuesday morning., & one of the missing sick ones was Arno, who's working on the 501(c)3 forms. Meanwhile, I've been substitute teaching almost every day (including Monday, so it was a REALLY short meeting). I've been telling teachers at every school the last few days what happened with the Jr Engineering & Cache StarHouse programs, & about the StarHouse Discovery Center & what our current status is. It seems like there is at least one teacher at every school who recognizes me from the StarHouse last year, even if they can't remember where they recognize me from. The coolest is when a student recognizes me. I was substituting in a 2nd grade class today, & that happened!

I've also been working on the StarHouse Discovery Center webpage. I'm trying to learn how to do forms so that people can enter their contact info & type a message to us right from the webpage. I think I need to learn some Java to be able to do it, though.

LtUE, report

Last weekend was the annual Life, the Universe, & Everything Science Fiction & Fantasy Symposium at Brigham Young University. I presented on Friday about the StarHouse Discovery Center, and on Saturday, I gave a workshop with some of our equipment. It was a lot of fun. The only problem was that all the teachers from the Educator's Conference on Saturday disappeared while I was setting up the equipment. But then all the Gofers came, & they really enjoyed. Gofers are the volunteers that make sure the panelists & presenters have everything they need - they "go fer this, & go fer that." Most of the Gofers at LtUE are the teenage children of former (& sometimes present) committee members. LtUE is primarily put on by BYU students who enjoy science fiction & fantasy. Some of the panels I attended were Creating Historical Costuming, Using 3D Image Editing Software, World Building, and Filking. Filking is Science, Science Fiction, & Fantasy folk singing. My Dan was with me, which made this year WAY more awesome than previous years, & on Saturday, we took one of our nieces along, too. She's almost eight, & takes art lessons. There were a bunch of art panels on Saturday, & she attended them, really enjoyed herself, & made a cartoon of her own. The Symposium always ends in a banquet, & this year it was held at the Skyroom on BYU campus. Yummy food, good friends, & meeting new, like-minded people - what more can you ask?

LtUE

I'll be at Life, the Universe, and Everything this weekend.

This is a FREE Science Fiction & Fantasy Symposium. I will be presenting about the StarHouse Discovery Center on Friday, & conducting a teachers' workshop on a few of the modules for the Jr Science & Astronomy outreach program on Saturday.

Hope to see you there!

Moving Forward

Today was our actual meeting with James from Cache Valley Space Education Center. M.Robin was also there. We've decided we do want to include the simulator as part of our program - and are going to be spending the next few weeks looking into places we could move it to and run programs. The 501(c)3 application is almost ready, so we will soon be sending in grant applications. We're also going to look into the possibility of setting up a payment plan with USU to buy the Jr Engineering equipment. We also discussed the possibility of working with the high schools in the area for some design work and possible collaborations with various research groups in the region.

Our next meeting is February 8, 2010 at 8:00 am. The location is not yet set.

It was an excellent meeting, & very exciting, even if my reporting of it is not. I suppose I need to work on my writing skills. A good opportunity for that will be at LtUE February 11-13 at BYU. This Science Fiction Symposium is FREE, & I will be giving a presentation on the StarHouse Discovery Center on Friday, February 12th at 10:00 am. Hope to see you there!

For M.Robin

The StarHouse is an attempt by a few former Jr Engineering employees & me to establish a planetarium & science museum here in Cache Valley, and keep a mobile, hands-on science program going for elementary school students in the region.

We could use a student's perspective. Our next meeting's January 26 at 3:30pm. Email me for more info or if you'ld like to come.

Too Excited

Apparently, I'm a little too excited to get this thing under way. At least I'm not the only one. At our last board meeting, we decided that for our next one we wanted to meet with James Porter of Cache Valley Space Education Center. He teaches at Thomas Edison South, a local charter school, so we had to change the time to after school got out. Both James & I thought that meeting was supposed to happen today. It's not 'til next week. Argh! I want to get moving on things!

Meanwhile, I had a brainstorm over the weekend. With the simulator, we could start running programs ASAP. All we need is power to it, and access to a classroom. Currently, it's located at North Cache 8-9 Center, & if we can't work out something with that school, we'll also need to move it, which requires a semi. James has some files about what it would cost to move it & run it, some of which he got from CMSEC, & which he has sent me copies of. I also have some files, which I need to share with him. Once we've both had a chance to look over all the files, next week, at the real meeting, we'll be able to talk over them with Neil & Arno, & hopefully move forward with this project of ours

Parents in New Zealand

I mentioned the other day that my parents are in New Zealand. I asked if they had been able to see the Southern Cross. I heard from them today, & here is their response:

Hi, having a great time, the only night was clear for stars was Friday night and we did not know where the southern cross is ( I assume in trhe south but wwe are a little disoriented what with driving on the wrong side of the road sitting on the wrong side of the car-- it is even worse in the passenger seat. see ya later mom and dad

I hope they've had a good time, in spite of the difficulty of being on the wrong side of the road.

Down Under

So my parents are in New Zealand, & my Dad has a blog: The Trigator, but when I tried to make a comment on it, the link for comments wasn't available. 8-( In an e-mail from my Mom the other day, she mentioned that they might visit a planetarium down there. I want to know if they've managed to spot the Southern Cross. It's not as easy to find as the Big Dipper we have here in the Northern Hemisphere. I've had some opportunities to practice in the Clark Planetarium Dome, & with Stellarium. If I remember right, it's in the Milky Way, across from the Magellanic Clouds. Which is probably not a really useful description, but I'm having stupid computer problems, & Stellarium won't open, so that's completely from memory. I hope to one day visit the Southern Hemisphere so I can see it for myself.

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.