The Junior Camp at The Space Place. Just Right for Your 3rd and 4th Grader
I salute Bracken Funk and his staff and Voyager Club volunteers at The Space Place at Renaissance Academy for their Junior Camp on the Starship Voyager. Running a simulation using Thorium controls for this age group can be a challenge. I speak from experience because of my work at Renaissance with the Young Astronauts Club for grades 3 - 5. Yet, as challenging as it is, The Space Place team have it down to an art and science.
I stopped in to watch a mission a week or so ago. Bracken was on the bridge and Livy was the Flight Director. The Space Place policy for Junior Camps is either Bracken is the ship's captain working right with the crew on the bridge, or he is the bridge supervisor. This ensures the mission will run smoothly (or as smoothly as the crew will allow :)
Bracken spent time before the first Junior Camp retooling Thorium controls for the 3rd and 4th graders. Some features are disabled to avoid needlessly long training time. That requires a different bridge control set up between stations. I noticed that all of the campers worked their stations fairly well, requiring little assistance from Bracken.
The mission is fun and engaging. The young campers love their time on the big starship and are excited to try the big kid camps once they go into the 5th grade. Although we are near the end of the summer camp season, there are still openings on the July 29th, July 31st, and August 2nd camps. The price is $65.00 for the 6.5 hour mission. Visit TheSpacePlace.org for more information. The Junior Camps at The Christa McAuliffe Space Center
The Christa McAuliffe Space Center offered four different camps to youngsters aged 3 - 9 years old; Art, Engineering, Chemistry, and Preschool. Multiple camps were offered each week from June 4 to July 22. These camps are always popular with parents and kids with most of the camps selling out.
I stopped in for a short while to watch Brian Dean, Kyson, and Benson run the Art Camp. The three of them related well with the younglings. The three all agreed that working the Junior Camps was fun. I didn't ask if it was funner than working in the simulators so the answer to that question is an unknown. You'll need to ask them that question yourself.
Brian Dean and Benson monitored the room, stopping to help and answer questions when needed. Kyson went from table to table showing the younglings pictures of different planets from a space book to help spur their imaginations. The kids were having fun, and from listening to the chatter in the room, were all future astronomers and astronauts!
A Report on the July Voyager Club Meeting
The Voyager Club's July membership meeting was held yesterday at the CMSC. We met in Central School's faculty room.
Jason Trump, Director of Clark Planetarium's Education Department and a Voyager Academy Instructor, gave an excellent presentation on asteroids meteors and meteorites.
As always, the meeting started with Bingo for prizes at 8:00 A.M. We play for 30 minutes before the meeting officially starts at 8:30 A.M. Bingo is a way of encouraging the members to arrive early so everyone is present and in their seats when the meeting starts. The meeting was called to order at 8:30 A.M.
Conducting the meeting was Amberly Perry. This was her last last official duty as our outgoing Voyager Club president. Amberly was recently promoted to Phoenix Flight Director and therefore became a member of staff. While all volunteers and staff of the Space Center are members of the club, the club's primary mission and focus is with the volunteers. Resigning her position as club president is required once one moves into a paid position at the CMSC. She received a good round of applause from the members. "Amberly, please come to all the future meetings," one of the volunteers called out. Amberly said she would do her best to attend.
The first item of business was the new member introductions. Four new members stood and introduced themselves. A few are already in the Volunteering Group and the others are Explorers working on the requirements to volunteer. Amberly turned the reminder of the time to me for a few announcements and then to Jason Trump for the lesson.
Announcements: 1. A reminder to always shower and deodorize before come to volunteer was given. 2. I reminded the members to get their volunteering requests in early before all the missions are filled. With the end of the summer camp season, private missions fill up quickly with volunteers. The early bird gets the worm - remember that. 3. I spoke to the members about our upcoming AI and The Space Centers workshop coming up next month. It will be taught by Ben Murdock. Ben is a former Galileo Flight Director and currently works at Google in their AI division. He comes to Utah several times a year to visit family and is excited to share his knowledge with us.
Jason Trump gave an excellent lesson on asteroids, meteors, and meteorites. He brought his personal meteorite collection to show. Everyone put on a plastic glove to avoid getting dirt and oil on the collection.
The most expensive item was worth $9000! Yes, these space rocks are expensive. My favorite was a meteorite from the moon. Jason let me know it with without a glove so I can honestly tell people that I've held a piece of the moon. Not many of you can say that!
We are grateful for Jason's help with the Voyager Academy's mission to Create a Spacefaring Civilization. We are lucky to have someone with his background on our teaching staff. August's Voyager Club meeting will be our end of summer party. The Voyager Club Leadership Team will start making plans for that this week. Imaginarium Theater.
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AuthorMy name is Victor Williamson. I founded the Christa McAuliffe Space Center in 1990. I current teach 6th grade at Renaissance Academy and am the Space Center Outreach Coordinator (I take care of the volunteers). You can reach me by email: [email protected] Archives
October 2024
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