Contact Victor Williamson with your questions about simulator based experiential education programs for your school.
SpaceCampUtah@gmail.com

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

The First Week of October


This describes you, doesn't it?


Hello Troops,

September is behind us.
This is the longest the Space Center has been closed in 22 years.  In 2000 the Voyager was closed for four months undergoing a major renovation.  We installed new furniture, a new network and new computers. The Center remained open during that renovation, running private missions in the other four ships.  We couldn't take field trips because the Voyager was closed. Today's renovation of all five ships requires us to close completely.  It is good to do it this way and not disrupt the Center for a longer period of time doing one or two ships at a time.

The Space Center's staff and volunteers can take pride in what they've accomplished over the past 22 years.  Over 310,000 people have attended the Center for field trips, classes and camps.  Our simulators have run over 30,000 missions, making the Space Center The Second Happiest Place on Earth (remember, I give the Disney Parks credit as being the first.  Who doesn't love the Disney parks?).

Thank you staff and volunteers for the time, devotion and energy you've given over the years.  The Space Center is what it is today because of the work of thousands of volunteers and staff.

Thank you Space Center fans for your continued support.  The Center would have closed twenty years ago had it not been for an outpouring of support that convinced the school district to keep the Center open.  You said it was awesome and they agreed.

Thank you to our school district for being innovative and visionary.  I doubt you could find a school district more supportive of this new and unusual way of using simulations in education.

I believe simulations are the future of education.  Soon, with computers improving almost daily, children will do most of their learning through real life, science fiction and fantasy simulations.  Why would a teacher lecture on life in the Middle Ages, when her class could go on a virtual journey into the Dark Ages to see and experience it for themselves?  They could walk through a medieval village, see a battle,  explore a castle and meet the historic people of the time?   Perhaps a century from now, children will virtually walk through a holographic Voyager to see a place that pioneered education through simulation in a small elementary school in far away Pleasant Grove.




Today's Lesson.
People gravitate toward those who nourish, love and sustain them.  Think about your life.  Do you prefer to be in the company of optimists or pessimists?  Do you prefer to see a stern face standing at the front of a class or a face wrinkled by excessive smiling and laughing?   Do you prefer to hear, "It can't, it won't or it's a waste of your time and mine,"  or  "Why not, It might, and Let's give it try?"
Be the kind of person you enjoy being with.             


And now, Wonderland's  Imaginarium 



Creativity in Design and Advertising.  A


Protestants are not allowed to be buried in Catholic cemeteries.
This couple found a creative way to display their love despite 
their religious and physical separation.


The inside of a train car disguised to resemble a library.
Brilliance in Design: A


Finding a new use for a common Kitchen utensil.
Thinking out of the box.


A Conference Room at the Ministry of Nightmares and Machinations here at the Imaginarium.


A Four Generations Photograph.  
Outstanding use of imagination and creativity.


My kind of drain stopper.
Creativity: A


A Goodbye cake to a workplace friend.
Humorous with an icing of creativity!


A unique Halloween costume for a boy in a wheelchair.
Imagination and Creativity:  Off the Charts!


And finally,
Just when you thought your flight home would be peaceful and uneventful.
Just when you thought you'd be able to do a bit of in flight work.
Suddenly, your seat mate arrives and all bets are off.
Ever have this happen to you on a flight?
Pray it doesn't.

1 comment:

Some Silly Staff said...

A very nice post!
I loved it!