Hello Troops,
I had a meeting yesterday with several Space Center staff and volunteers who've been meeting on their own to mull over possible plans for our new Space Center. They want to contribute to the process of recreating the success of the old Space Center in the new Center being envisioned by the District's Space Center Committee.
Alex Debirk was on hand to offer expert advice on their building ideas. Alex is a former Space Center flight director and designer of the new Galileo. Alex still contributes to the Space Center by creating computer special effects for our missions. Alex graduates in three weeks with a Masters degree in structural engineering from Berkeley. Buildings are his speciality.
BJ Warner, Stacy Carrell, Skyler Paxman, Jon Parker, and Ben Murdock presented their vision for a new Space Center building. Their building design included several starship simulators, classrooms, briefing rooms, dorms, etc. A planetarium, offices, and gift shop were also part of their dream building. I was impressed with their work.
Community citizenship and a true spirit of volunteerism is the foundation of the Space Center. This spirit is evident in our volunteers and staff who continue to meet on their own, without pay (despite the Space Center's closure) to work toward the continued success of this happy place we call The Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center. Their work is just one example of the success that comes when an educational institution joins forces with its community and business partners to create a learning center unique to the world.
Alex Debirk took the ideas discusses in our meeting yesterday, drew them up in a preliminary sketch and emailed them to me for consideration. I'd like to show you the initial sketches. Remember, this is a very rough design for the 'dream' Space Center.
Remember, this is a suggested design imagined by a committee of Space Center volunteers and staff. It is a proposal they will be debating and altering over the next few weeks. The plans above are for a much larger Center than the 2.5 million dollar Center currently being discussed. This is the dream Center. The cost for the Center above would be roughly $5,000,000. We start with a dream, then work to achieve it.
Please remember, the new Space Center may not offer overnight camps. This is a decision to be made by the district's committee. The school district's Space Center Committee has been designated to make official recommendations to the school board.
The Space Center is here today because of people like you who have supported us for twenty-two years. Your support gives you a voice, a voice I'd like to hear. All readers of The Troubadour are welcome to comment on this design. What do you like? What would you change? What did the volunteer committee forget to include? Do you have another idea you'd like to share? This is your opportunity. Please send a jpeg of your own design along with comments and suggestions. Its speak now or forever hold your peace.
All ideas and drawings will be posted on the blog for everyone's consideration. Let your creative juices flow. It is time to Imagine! What would your dream center include? How many ships? Would you include a school as part of the new Center? If so, what grades? What would the school's emphasis be? How could more math and science be integrated into future Space Center missions? Besides simulators, what else could a new Space Center have to make it more field trip friendly to grades 1 to 4 and grades 7 to 12?
The district's Space Center Committee will be discussing the new building at an upcoming meeting. It would be good to have your ideas and suggestions to take with me into the discussion.
Mr. Williamson
Space Science Lesson for the Day.
The Imaginarium
We haven't made a trip into the Imaginarium for quite a while. Let's take a break and see creativity and imagination in action.
Money is made when a person find's a need and fills it.
This is how a successful business works.
Creativity: A
A backpack with hood.
It fills a need
A good thing to remember
I post this as a reference to see beyond our five senses.
Just because we can't see it, feel it, hear it, or smell it doesn't mean it isn't real.
There are other dimensions of space time we can't sense in our 3 dimensional world.
Someone living in a 2D world wouldn't perceive us because we exist in 3 dimensions -
except for the exact place our finger intersects the plane of their 2D universe.
Are there signs out there of intersections from other dimensions of space time in our
universe? Something to ponder.
A pretzel bakery's Thanksgiving Offering.
Creativity: A
A unique calendar.
A careful balancing act.
These are popping up everywhere.
A need filled. Take one, donate one.
Imagination: A
Humor: A
Making something special out of an ordinary everyday object like this trash can.
A special Christmas something for your door.
Creativity: A
His faith is being tested.
Haven't we all contributed a chapter to this book?
You have to give him credit for trying
Be nice to the people who serve you.
Brilliant design and very creative!
A unique bunk bed.
Take the ordinary and make it extraordinary.
This is going up in my classroom.
It made you stop and think, didn't it?
Brilliant advertising
Creativity: A
I'd buy several of these a year, check the appropriate box and give it as a humorous gift.
Find a need and fill it.
A clever way to include something common place into something imaginative.
I don't get this and I never will.
What are these two thinking?
I'm glad the world has people like this. I'm not one of them.
Some people live outside the box.
They will always push the boundary.
You know you're approaching self actualization with you really don't care
what people think.
A clever doorstop.
Creativity: A
Guilty as charged.
I've got a prison full of these in my kitchen.
Impossible in my opinion without the Force.
A creative teacher with a sense of play and humor.
A creative use of 20 ounce soda and water bottles.
Amen.
I rarely would consider posting a photo of a toilet but this one begged to be shared.
Reading materials not needed in this restroom.
This boy has the right idea when out Christmas shopping with his mom.
Remember, there is always something to be found worthy of mention.
Imagination: A
Brilliant holiday decoration idea.
I'll be nobody in your neighborhood has thought of this yet.
Be the first.
So that's why?
I get it now.
The real Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse.
A light saber across your car's grill, your punishment will be.
You'd be surprised how many businesses and organizations treat their employees this way.
Something you'd never find at the Space Center.
We welcome and require ideas and suggestions.
Which are you?
Why do we still cling to the old ways?
A Thanksgiving Pizza.
Creativity: A
I badly want.
Steve Martin's business cards.
Take an ordinary thing and make it extraordinary.
Sometimes security cameras catch people showing us that there are plenty of good people left in this world.
21 comments:
I would love to see programs for 7-12 graders, because the magic can't just stop when you hit 14. :) I love the new design. Very Modern and it incorporates space well. I really like the idea of many more ships. We should try to save the Odyssey or at least rename one of those ships (If this will be the design) the Odyssey or Voyager. :D
I really like the new layout, but something worries me. I think that each of the simulators should have a different shape (or at least different furniture placement...) If all the simulators were the same it might remove the incentive to try the other ships. It is impressive to think that there might be eight simulators working at the same time! I also like the flexible space because it would allow each ship to do their own away missions without worrying if another ship's crew is in the hallway. Anyway, those are just my two cents...
I have to agree with the idea of having different simulator shapes. Or maybe not even different shapes, but make every one unique in it's own way. And this is just an idea, but maybe we could design some or all of the "flexible space" to represent a starship. Central's hallways were a bit of a shift from a high-tech spaceship. And programs for 7-12 graders is a GREAT idea. Emphasis on GREAT.
2 things: Although I would love to see stuff for grades 7-12 I think that if faced with a choice between the two the focus should be on the yonger people. And also, since the Galileo is moveable, will it be at the new center or stay at Central?
Yeah, I think the ships should be different. Maybe you could still incorporate the design of the old ships, like recreate them as one of the new ships. It's gonna take lots more volunteers!
I liked how the ships were different sizes and all were really different on the inside too, but you might have a reason why they are the same size, thanks for all you do!
Having the planetarium in the center will be an issue because of noise and class movements in and out. We also need a much larger classroom space to accommodate all those kids when not in the simulators. The class/planetarium are just as important as the simulators to the field trip program. The cafeteria needs to be large enough to fit a minimum of half our field trip capacity at a time. I've got my own plans somewhere I'll send in.
I love the layout, but I'm a little nervous about having 4 small ships all squished together. There are times when the crew on the Odyssey can hear the crew on the Phoenix, and having 4 ships simultaneously running may have strange moments of sound bleeding through.
Be sure to look at traffic flow patterns- and noise flow patterns. Even without a Dragonlady next door, it would save eardrums if different ships and planetariums and classrooms didn't have to compete. I like the spoke pattern as a basic flow plan, but why does it seem biased towards the simulators, with the classrooms added as an afterthought? (The staff lounge areas seem bigger than the classrooms) How about one quadrant be the educational section, with a demonstration room instead of a 4th large simulator (it can be modified eventually, but begins more like a cooking show demonstration lab with cameras set up to show experiments from multiple angles) and the plain classrooms and a set of bathrooms. I like the quadrant with the shuttle and shop and reception area. That corner seems like the best place for the parking lot.
The use of space should be aligned with the mission and purposes of the new center. If we're still teaching merit badges and programming, space needs set aside for that. What are the mission and purposes of the Space Center?
Just a few thoughts from a long-time observer,
Good luck.
That new design idea looks great; there are so many things that we don't have now that would be great to have in the future! I know one thing that we often had to deal with was running into crews who were just entering the school while our own crew was on an away mission (or the staff was getting things ready). It looks like the crew could get to the "Flexible Space" areas, which I assume would be used for away missions as well as other things. Would there be any way to get the staff to these locations without walking through the main hallways?
When we get a couple ships open t Central should we rename a ship the USS Victor Allen? Or the USS Wlliamson?
I really like what you want to put into the new center, but I'm kinda iffy on the placement (also 9 simulators!!!!). I think there should be more of a clear split between where the simulators are and where the classrooms are, so that there's less chance of them running into each other during away missions (and it'll help with sound problems, especially with the planetarium right in the middle of 4 simulators, unless you want 40+ screaming kids being heard in the middle of a presentation).
I'm also a bit worried about having the 4 small simulators clustered right next to each other. Loading and unloading will be really chaotic, and again with the 4 large simulators, it'll be really loud. I think you should spread the simulators around.
And, like the previous poster, make all of the simulators unique. It'll be a bit boring with only 3 "different" ships that you can be in. A few related notes, will there be areas to do briefings? Where will the brigs be for the large simulators?
Finally, make the new center feel like a starbase in the Federation. It'll really help people get into the mood.
Make note that the following is purely based off of my own speculation, and in no way is confirmed or is an actual list of what is needed. This just shows a ballpark range of what is needed if the new space center is based off of this design and all 9 simulators are opened at once. - M. Ricks
People:
Assuming that each of the large simulators will each be the size of the Voyager: 9 to 11 crew, and each of the small simulators are the size of the Odyssey: 6 to 8 crew, plus the Galileo in the Shuttle bay: 5 to 6 crew, that evaluates to be 65 to 82 campers for a full camp. In order to staff this camp, you would need 9 flight directors, 8 supervisors, 5 volunteers per large ship, 3 volunteers per small ship, and 2 for the galileo, + the Director + anyone else that sticks around mainly M. Ricks, the onsite technician, that evaluates to be around 53. That's about 135 people for a maxed out camp. That isn't including any classroom sessions going on. That's a lot of people. Assuming that everyone eats 2 donuts and 1 cup of milk/orange juice, that would be over 20 dozen donuts, and over 8 gallons of milk and orange juice every overnight camp. Plus the banana's, clementines, and the gogurts.
Computers:
The total amount of computers on the bridge of a small ship would be 7 assuming there is 8 crew members. In the control room of those small ships, you'd have to include the core, a potential auxcore, the sound fx, the music, the tactical, and possibly a video computer. Which turns out to be an average of 5 computers per control room for the small ships. For the big ship control rooms, you are going to have around 9 computers in those control rooms, and on the bridge of those ships, you will have an average of… well, Magellan has 30 on the bridge, and the Voyager has 17, so a reasonable amount I would say would be 20. So you'd have 20 computers on each of the large ships. The Galileo has a total of 10 computers. Then you'd have one computer for the staff, as well as a few prop computers, we'll say 5, and also the computer possibly in the gift shop, and the computer for the reception area, and the computer for each of the classrooms, one for the Director, and at least one computer for the guild hall, and one server for the entire space center. So in total, just for computers, you'd have around 186 active computers doing a purpose of some sort, and 1 server. Hardly any of these computers should be accessing the internet, but they should all be on the same network. Currently, concatenating all of the computers the space center (just the ones that we would be able to transfer over to the new center, so nearly all the voyager and Magellan computers will not be included) we would have about 50 computers that we would be able to bring over from the old center to the new one. These are not all top of the line computers, many of them are old ibooks, or the white iMacs. Assuming that to get the mac minis that we need (not the new ones because our programming would not fit that) my guess would be $500 each for a refurbished mac mini with the correct operating system and the correct amount of ram and such that includes a monitor. That is about $68000 in computer costs alone. That doesn't include programming, or any other hardware required for the computer to even be used such as keyboard and mouse.
DVD Players:
Flat out, we'd need 35 DVD players, but we probably have that covered already.
Sound Systems:
I'm not an expert in sound systems, but from what the space center currently has in supply right now is not enough. We have 8 sound boards in total. We'd need at least 4 new sound systems if the old ones are going to be reused.
TV's:
These are probably the most fluid of all because it's all up to the design of the ship, but if each simulator ran with 1 TV, we'd need about 25 TV's in total which includes 1 TV on the bridge of all simulators, a preview TV in the control room, a TV for the staff, TV's in the classroom, as well as a few other misc. TV's such as in the reception area, or the gift shop. The space center currently uses 10 Flat Screen TV's, 17 CRT TV's, and 3 Projectors, totaling to be 30 about 30 TV's in active use. As for storage, we have 1 flat screen, and 2 Projectors, and many Mini CRT TV's (used to be used in the Magellan)
Programming:
With nearly the entire programming department leaving for LDS missions within the next few years, you would need to get things solidified right now so they can work on it as much as possible, or higher other programmers, as well as train new technicians to handle the computers and video and sound systems, and the network. This just might need a full blown district technician.
The following is what I would I think would be a valuable addition to this design of the Space Center.
A Museum - to show all the history of the space center, from it's grass roots to the current simulators, and all the people, thought, and technology that has gone into the space center over the years.
A second floor - I think a second floor is not necessary, but would be highly convenient. This second floor could allow for the flexible space to have higher ceilings to allow for possible large projections to be placed on the walls, a fly system to by put in place, variable lighting, variable floor levels and movable walls etc. The 2nd floor would also be nice to have as a way for staff to quickly get from ship to ship without having to duck, dodge and sneak our way through away missions that are being held on the lower floor. The simulators could have raised ceilings, and as a result, the lighting fixtures of simulators could be accessed from the 2nd floor, as well as any vents or secret doors that would allow for the Slime Devil to enter and scare the crew. The 2nd floor can also be used as an "Observation Deck" with darkened glass or one way windows for parents or other observers to watch the simulation without crowding flight director in the control room. The 2nd floor could also house additional classrooms, sleeping areas, or planetariums.
The sickbays - The sickbays are secluded from the rest of the ship, which may mean that the camper may feel secluded from the action of the main story. If possible, the sickbays should be brought more towards the action of the main bridge. I would suggest this, or make the sickbay incredibly open, or have 2 medical officers. The medical program has to be carefully integrated so it doesn't become a dreaded job. This may be harder also if we try to integrate the medical station into IIFX. In the Voyager, right now a dedicated supervisor is assigned to the medical officer. We may have to do some experimentation with the medical station, but it is incredibly delicate. This probably should be discussed with the Medical Supervisors though.
All in all, I love the design. I love the idea of eventually having 9 ships. There will need to be a lot of barricades and such built for use in the flexible space, but I feel it is the best design for our needs and it provides plenty of space for future expansion if needed.
Why so much wasted space? we really don't need a sick bay in every ship we don't need all the dorms if we don't offer over nighters and we have worked fine with the space at the space center anything more than that is just being wasteful
If possible, I think the new space center should have at least 2 floors. It would be cool to have the hall ways look futuristic so that students can do away missions. Each simulator should be a different shape, size, and have different technology to make them each a different learning experience. You could make the Planetarium on the second floor above the simulators to avoid noise. The new space center would be cool if it involved grades k-12 and if it offered classes that other school don't offer like programing classes, engineering, and robotics. It would be sweet if the space center had different rooms for people in the simulators to explore, like a room that looks like a engineering bay, weapons room, or like mars with dirt and rocks.
Here is some ideas I have.. although some might not be realistic
• The new space center should be built with the intention to expand later on.
• Have 2 Floors
• Planetarium on the second floor
• A Simulator with 2 floors, or 2 floors with a opening. (kinda like a balcony)
• Make it a school and offer classes through k-12
• Offer different classes, such as programing classes(HTML, JAVA, Visual Basic, etc), Engineering, and robotics, etc
• Make each simulator with a different shape, size, and with different technology
• Use newer(touch screen, iPads) and classic technology(computers)
• Lazer Tag?
• Make the Hallways look like Hallways of a space station/ship and provide away missions
• Have another rooms for each simulator, or rooms for all the simulators to go to such as a engineering bay, weapons room, mars(room with rocks, and dirt that could be used to teach geography)
Preserving all of the Space Center's camps and programs should still be considered a priority. Cut-paste the current infrastructure into the new building, as-is, then use all extra space that would otherwise have been a hallway or "flexible" space as added living space for overnighters or room for away missions. It's a simple solution across the board. Of course, we could always add more ships with extra "free space", but wouldn't you want to use that space for away missions? Best not to try to fix something that isn't broken--so to speak--and keep what works and capitalize on any leftover space for what it would have been used for if the current Center had been allowed to stay open. By doing all of the above--you would skip a lot of unnecessary headache in the planning process for moving the current Center into the new building.
It's always a good idea to add more "decks" to a larger simulator as possible for added station numbers, realism and authenticity. The Magellan was in the process of getting its own "Deck 2" or "Engineering". It would make sense to incorporate that idea if there is space to capitalize on for that ship/space station. It really wouldn't make much sense to give the smaller ships more physical decks. No need to rename anything, but we could build more small ships to supplement larger groups for longer camps and programs.
I'm going to go back to our original design for a new building that we drew up a year or two back. I really like the idea of having a central medical center that is shared by all the simulators that also coordinates all of the away missions. It would have TV's showing cameras of the away mission areas and have communication with all the control rooms.
As for the simulators needing to be different, we discussed giving each a square room and then each Set Director is given freedom to customize the ship as they see fit, keeping in mind that the simulators have to have X number of stations in them.
One of the things I would also love to see would be a shared engineering room. This room would contain all of the activity panels that would be used in 'manually' fixing the ship. If we did it right, we could make the panels nearly maintenance free, and any required maintenance would be very easy. Since the medical center would be shared, the engineering room would probably have to be on a separate floor, accessible from the bridge of each ship.
Away from the simulators, I also really liked the idea of having a waiting room/lounge near the entrance that parents could wait and watch/listen to the crews on the simulators.
And don't forgot, we want spots to put iPads/iPods, as it will be very easy to link those up to the rest of the ship controls.
I love it! The designs are great and I think the flexible space is great for away missions. But, I think we should still have overnight missions. Those are one of my favorite types, as a camper and as a volenteer. We are still doing camps right? If we are, we need to remember a place for the campers to sleep. I think we could just set up cots in the flexible space like we did before.
I love the new design. I agree that we most likely need 2 floors but of course looking at the design. I love the way it is. All ages 1-12 should be able to participate. We staff need to keep the C lowest grade and a B average. I definitely agree with that. Lets keep everything the same on that plan in my opinion. BTW. Miss all of you staff members.
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