The American Heritage Space Center Flight Director Team
Bracken Funk and I were at American Heritage School in American Fork last week with Renaissance Academy's basketball team (I keep the game stats, Bracken is the coach). With several minutes to go before game time, I took the opportunity to go upstairs to the school's space center to visit with its director - Alex DeBirk. I heard Alex's voice several yards down the hallway coming from the Galileo Room. He was discussing the finer points of flight directing.
I found Alex at the mission control station training three flight directors. "This is our first class of flight directors," Alex said as he introduced me to the trio. I jotted down their names and have since lost the note so I apologize for not formally introducing them to you, but that will be corrected as time passes and The Troubadour highlights their work. I do know that the gentleman beside Alex is the school's high school chemistry teacher. He also teaches the classroom portion of their in school field trips scheduled to start in January.
I will be joining the flight team as well as needed. Of course I'm on call at the Christa McAuliffe Space Center in Pleasant Grove (also when needed) and have my primary daily responsibilities at The Space Place at Renaissance Academy where I teach the Young Astronauts and Voyager Club cadets.
Flying at American Heritage will be interesting. There is one control room for both ships (Discovery and Galileo). The flight directors sit side by side. I haven't done that since the days of iWorlds in Murray, Utah back in 2007 with the Apollo and Artemis simulators. The situation is temporary until the school builds the new High School building in the vacant lot north of the current building. The school's space center will move to the new building at that time and will have more room.
Good luck to the valley's newest flight directors!
Meet the Staff and Volunteers of the Past. Honors Night, November 30, 2004
The series continues. Today I want to introduce you to some of the people who made the Christa McAuliffe Space Center the place it is today. Here are a few pictures from the Honor's Night held on November 30, 2004. All these great people are 18 years older and wiser today; some still live locally and others are, well who knows where, but to all of them I want to say thank you for your service to furthering the Space Center's great mission, To Create a Space Faring Civilization!
Honors Night volunteer honors. I think that's Jessica in the blue jacket. Warren Nuila is in the gray outfit. Bridge Maxwell is behind Warren in black. Rebecca Clegg is in the green shirt. Eric Babb next to Rebecca
and that's all I can remember.
I apologize for the blurry photo above. We still used traditional cameras with film back in the day and whoever took this photo didn't focus. That's ok, we can still make out some of the faces and names. I'll need help with the others (spacecamputah@gmail.com).
OK, back row left to right. Me, then ?, then Ammon Clegg, then?, then Steven Bristow in orange, BJ Warner, Amber McEntire, the young man in black is a Robinson, and I don't remember the name of the volunteer at the end in green.
Front Row: Jessica, Taylor Herring, Brandon Warner, Spencer Dauwalder, and another name I've forgotten
Thomas Harding receiving his Supervisor Blues.
Here is an easy one. Megan Warner earning another honor. Megan lives locally working with Matt Long at Enigma 3 AND works with us at The Space Place
Rick Cowdell
Sam Brady
And here they are, Rick Cowdell, Megan Warner, and Sam Brady. They each earned their first bar (look at the collar).
Halloween Past and Present
Has it been that long? I just celebrated my 40th Halloween in education. Do you see a difference between my students from way back then at Central Elementary School (three pictures to on the left) and my sixth graders today at Renaissance Academy (picture on the right)? About the only difference I see is the quality of some of the costumes, other than that, kids are kids and Halloween is sacred.
Imaginarium Theater
The Best Videos From Around the World Edited for a Gentler Audience.
No comments:
Post a Comment