Alex DeBirk as Motel
Alex DeBirk is the physics teacher at American Heritage School in American Fork and the director of school's Discovery Space Center with the starships Discovery and Galileo. In his very limited spare time, Alex plays many roles in local musical productions.
Alex has just announced that he has landed the role of Motel in The Fiddle on the Roof at the Hale Center Theater in Sandy. This is fantastic news, especially because my entire sixth grade (all 90 of us) will be seeing Fiddle on the Roof in March as part of the HCT's school field trip program. We will make sure Alex gets the loudest applause and even a standing ovation!
Alex started his space center career as a young high school volunteer at the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center. He graduated from Lone Peak, went on an LDS mission to Japan, graduated with a master's degree in engineering from Stanford, and has come full circle back to Space EdVenturing by founding the American Heritage School's Discovery Space Center in American Fork.
The Sweetest Way to Teach Math
The Space Center's Voyager Academy offers math tutoring to our volunteers on Tuesday afternoons. I stopped by to say hello on a couple weeks ago and found Hyrum working with our Voyager Club president Mikey on his math homework. They were using SweetTarts Ropes as a method to calculate curves. "Now that's the Space Center way," I observed. "We are masters of taking what we have and reengineering it to meet a need it was never designed to meet."
Orion, Mikey, and Hyrum
The spirit of volunteerism is the Space Center's foundation. Both Hyrum and Orion volunteer their time to offer the math tutoring program. As a community, those of us who work and volunteer at the Space Center do our part to further our nation's space programs by encouraging our people to do their best in their math and science courses.
Mercy Strike II Debuts at The Space Place at Renaissance Academy
The Middle School Tiger Squadron of Renaissance Academy's Voyager Club were the first to do part 1 of a new Long Duration Mission with the working title of Mercy Strike II.
Many of our staff remember the mission Mercy Strike. I wrote the story years and years ago. Mercy Strike has an ending with the crew of the Voyager barely escaping certain death in a chase scene through Romulan Space.
the first to do the part one of Mercy Strike II
Our Farpoint Voyager Club's 7-9th grade squadrons did Mercy Strike last year as their Long Duration Mission from October to May. The story was altered somewhat to fit within the Farpoint Universe. The Farpoint version of Mercy Strike ends with them being hurled toward a star in Cardilir space and then barely escaping the gravity well with a well place nuke. That ending opened the door to a Mercy Strike II which picks up the story from that point.
Bracken Funk and I authored the story and are excited to offer it to our cadets. So far the reviews are excellent.
Sunrise from The Fortress of Solitude
I call my home in Pleasant Grove the Fortress of Solitude. It sits on the bench overlooking Utah Valley from the living room's west window. The room's east window looks up the mountain side one block away. One late October morning I took this picture of a beautiful sunrise from my front yard.
Fall is my favorite time of the year.
Imaginarium Theater
The Week's Best Videos From Around the World Edited for a Gentler Audience
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