The Troubadour: 09/01/2017

The InfiniD Team: Jorden, Conner, Skyler, Danny Harding (New CTO) Brooks and Casey

Our friends at InfiniD welcomed their new Chief Technical Officer with a mission on the USS Voyager last week. Formal introductions were held in my classroom pictured above. Just imagine all the simulated talent in the photo above! Get it, simulated talent. InfiniD is in the business of creating simulations; get it? Based on his expression, it appears Skyler just got the joke and isn't amused.

The new CTO is Danny Harding, pictured above wearing the t-shirt displaying the schematics of the Voyager's shielding system. He's flanked on both sides by his new co-workers to prevent any thought of escape. This was to be his first mission in a starship simulator. Casey and Skyler thought it best to put him through a mission to help him envision what the business is all about. Danny graduated from Pleasant Grove High School a while back and is currently attending BYU. He and his wife live in Orem.

Alex DeBirk and Isaac Ostler directed the mission. In addition to his Voyager flight directing, Alex teaches physics and science at American Heritage School in American Fork. He is starting four new Voyager Clubs at American Heritage this school year. Isaac works full time at Renaissance Academy, home of the Voyager. He directs the school's InfiniD missions in addition to working with me running Renaissance Academy's 27 Young Astronaut and Voyager squadrons in this year's Long Duration Mission program.

Alex and Isaac did their best to befuddle the InfiniD dream team but sadly, it wasn't to be. Captain Danny and crew won the day - barely breaking a sweat. "Curse you," Alex mumbled under his breath after offering the team his congratulations from the control room. Switching off the microphone he turned to me with a proposal. "I demand a rematch, they'll get theirs. Just you wait."

Bountiful Elementary, Hawthorne Academy, Joel P Jensen Middle School, and Majestic Field Elementary Launch InfiniD Labs. The InfiniD Network of Experiential Simulators Grows.

The Troubadour welcomes four new InfiniD Labs into the growing network of schools that house experiential learning simulators inspired by the original USS Voyager. These three

new InfiniD Labs take the official number of simulators both past and present to 55. The Simulator Database is accessible by clicking on the link on the blog's sidebar.

Are you curious about InfiniD? Did you think there were only a small handful of starship simulators at a few local Utah schools: The Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center, The Telos Discovery Space Centers, Farpoint Space Education Center, The Lions Gate Center?

If so, you are mistaken.

InfiniD is the world's fastest growing network of school-based, computer lab simulators committed to continuing the vision of simulator-based experiential education pioneered in my 6th-grade classroom back in 1983 and fine-tuned and expanded with the building of Simulator 1 the USS Voyager in 1990. Today nearly 30,000 students across Utah are applying what they learn in the classroom on an InfiniD mission.

To summarize; InfinD's mission is to provide every school worldwide with an experiential simulator of their own. That's a big goal and they're determined to make it so.

Take a moment and learn more about the future of education with InfiniD.

The Bountiful Elementary InfiniD Lab
Location: Bountiful Elementary School, Bountiful, Utah. Davis School District. All grades K-6 will participate in the InfiniD program.

The Hawthorne Academy InfiniD Labs (Two Campuses)

Location: South Jordan and West Jordan, Utah. Public Charter Schools

The InfiniD program will be offered to the 6th grades in both schools this school year.

The West Jordan Campus

The South Jordan Campus

The Joel P. Jensen Middle School InfiniD Lab
Location: West Jordan, Utah. The Jordan School District. The InfiniD Lab will be available to all 7th - 9th- grade students.