sitting in school

When I'm not working on the planetarium, I substitute teach. Many times I see kids standing up, hunched over their desk to work. Sometimes the kids aren't even aware that they have stood up, other times they say they can think better standing up. Except they're not even standing up, they're hunched over to write.

It is true that for many children, especially those whose primary learning mode is kinesthetic, or those with ADHD, standing up helps them focus. But they block the view of the children behind them, & leave their chair sticking out in the walkway for the teacher to trip over when trying to help other children (or in middle schools, where the desk is attached to the chair, the student is blocking the walkway himself). Plus, they're hunched over.

As you can probably tell, this bugs me. Today I thought of a possible solution: lab benches. Have a few desks available for every elementary school classroom that can be set at the equivalent of counter-height for the kid. Have a stool available, so that if they want to sit, they can, but either have no back or a low enough back that the stool can be pushed completely under the desk when the child wants to stand. Put all of the "lab benches" either in the back or down one side of the room to avoid blocking other students' view of the board/teacher/screen.

I doubt anyone will take this idea seriously, but I felt like I needed to share it.

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.

missed meeting

I've missed the last couple of StarHouse Discovery Center meetings, going to math workshops & such to keep my teaching certificate current, so here's the report on the last meeting from Neil Dabb.

Here's what we did on the 2nd of April in our meeting.



We reviewed the current draft of the Business plan and brainstormed a few additional ideas for funding etc. We also reviewed the drawings of the building and lot layout I sent out.



Arno is going to get the final draft of the plan finished and will send it out to us a couple days before he sends it to the IRS so we can double check things. He is also going to invite Kimberly Lott from the education department at USU to our next meeting. She has experience setting up programs like ours, and should be able to help us with the class we hope to offer as well.



Our next meeting will be April 16 at 3:30 at the ERA office. Email me if there is anything we need to discuss or know about before then.



Thanks

Neil

I better remember to get to the next one.

home science experiment

A science experiment idea from Neil Dabb, one of the other people working on the StarHouse Discovery Center.

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SCIENCE!!: While I was doing some research on air I came across several references to a myth that hot water will freeze faster than cold. Some referred to this as the Mpemba effect and that it stemmed from a young boy in Africa (named Mpemba) who did some experiments to prove this. Many “scientists” tried to duplicate the findings. While many of them were unable to duplicate this experiment, others have determined that there may be some validity depending on what is in the water (for example, we know that salt water freezes at a much lower temperature than fresh water), atmospheric and other conditions. Something as simple as the shape of the container may affect how fast the water freezes.

While the science behind this phenomenon is complex, the experiments themselves can easily be done by the youngest of students. And this can be a great introduction to the scientific method, and making sure there is only one difference between the various test samples. The water in one country obviously will have different impurities than the water in another country. The barometric pressure changes from day to day. All of these things will need to be taken into account, but this effect happens sometimes and we still aren’t sure why. Perhaps some of your classes would like to see if they can figure it out.

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Give it a try, see what you come up with

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.