Some clarification is needed. The building Alex designed in yesterday's The Troubadour post was the 'dream' Space Center. This proposed Dream Center would cost $5,000,000 at $200 per square foot.
Current realistic thought is a 2.5 million dollar building. Alex has done a bit more work and sent the following information for your consideration. As you consider all options, what are your thoughts and plans for a 12,500 square foot building (112 feet square) at 2.5 million, in addition to the dream center of 25,000 feet square at $5,000,000?
Alex's Email on the smaller building within current budget estimates.
Mr. Williamson
A 2.5
million dollar building at $200 per sq ft gives you 12,500 square feet,
or 112 feet square. If you'll look on the drawing of the center that I
sent you yesterday, you'll see that the circular "pod" of four
starships, if you make each ship 35 feet deep with 8 ft hallways (about
what Central Elementary has) and a 40' diameter planetarium,
is more than 12,500 sq ft.
So I think this means one or more of the following:
1. $2.5 million at $200 a sq ft doesn't give enough space
for a functional larger space center, let alone any of the other things being suggested (like a robotics center). $150 a sq ft would give another 2500 sq ft--not
much, but maybe the difference.
2. Building four Voyager-sized starships may not be
feasible. I think you should design the field trips so that you can
absorb the numbers with a combination of 2 large Voyager-sized ships and
four Odyssey-sized ships, with the Galileo as some emergency overflow.
Frankly speaking, you don't have space for four large ships as it is.
Stacy's numbers support the need for small ships because the Odyssey
was shown to be more cost-efficient and bring in more actual dollars
than any other ship. I recommend building two large ships, four
small, and keeping the Galileo. The four small ships add up to the two
big ships that you'll be losing; small ships make more money, can be fit
into nooks and crannies to maximize floor space, and add variety to
patrons' experience; and the Galileo is already built and should be
used anyway.
3. You may need to forget the big box building idea . With $2.5 million, the cost of acquiring a new property and building a shell,
although cheap, diminishes the available funds to build the actual
structure, which is already limited. On the other hand, perhaps a large building gives more flexibility, that is, you won't have
to build the entire center all at once, you can add to it with time as
money is available, and you may be able to build the actual center
cheaper than you would otherwise (I am not entirely sure that last part
is true).
4. $2.5 million simply isn't enough to accomplish the goal of providing a Space Center program able to accommodate the growing school district population and a magnet school program etc.
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.
This article appeared in today's edition of the Provo Daily Herald. It covers several items discussed in our last Space Center Committee meeting and comments made to the reporter during the last board meeting. My comments are added in blue. This article was written by Caleb Warnock, a reporter for the Daily Herald. Mr. W.
PLEASANT GROVE -- Alpine School District's condemned space center might find a second life as a magnet school.
I'm glad to see my suggestion has some support. Magnet schools are fairly common in school districts nationwide. I see a Space Center magnet school focusing on blending math, science and technology with the humanities. For ten years the heading of our blog has said "The Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center; A Utah Arts, Sciences, Math, Technology Initiative". This school would be open to students district wide. Can you imagine the public's interest in such a school? Imagine going to a school anchored by futuristic starship simulators. The demand to get into such a school would be overwhelming.
The
Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center was closed a month ago over
safety concerns. In a recent board meeting, district officials and board
members said they are mulling this opportunity to create something much
larger out of the space center program.
"Maybe the space center
is more than what it currently does," assistant superintendent Rob Smith
said. "Maybe there could be a zero gravity room. Maybe a 100-seat
theater."
We can't switch off gravity. I believe he may have meant a display that simulates alternate gravities. Clark Planetarium once had a device which simulated the moon's gravity. The moon's gravity is 1/6 that of Earths. You were strapped in this device which counter balanced away 5/6th of your weight. Such a device would be an excellent addition to the new Center.
A robotics and math program, sponsored by IM Flash
Technologies, could be part of the new plan, he said. There is a great
new for space for students to focus on match competitions, robotics and
technology classes.
"It would take it from a fourth- to
sixth-grade program to a secondary program, a magnet for the whole
district," board member JoDee Sundberg said.
The elementary grade program would not be eliminated. It is intended the new Center would continue to use simulators. These other programs would be offered for junior and senior high school students. The Space Center would be a field trip site for most grades.
"I think it has some great possibilities," Smith said.
Property
was purchased four or five years ago to build a new space center, but
the public, in hearings before the last bond, told board members they
did not want the district spending money on a space center redo.
"It
was the intent of the board to have it on the bond, and it was not
received by the public," Sundberg said. "I think that has to be
remembered. It was always the intent of the board to do something about
it."
We didn't have an organized effort to advocate for the Space Center on the bond. I asked our supporters not to rally for the Space Center believing there was enough money in the bond to meet all the District's needs, including a new Space Center. I wasn't concerned after the Space Center was taken off the bond. The District put out a statement saying a new Space Center would be built with capital money towards the latter part of this decade.
Since the center was closed, however, public sentiment has shifted toward the nostalgic in a big way.
"People
have been emailing me by the kazillion," board member Paula Hill said.
"We recognize the community attachment and we are doing everything we
can to facilitate it."
"Absolutely, we recognize the attachment and the community value," Superintendent Vern Henshaw said.
North
of Central Elementary in Pleasant Grove, the district purchased and
razed an old church with the intention of building a space center on the
property when funds became available. But when voters did not want the
space center on the bond, work had to be delayed. Now, the district has formed a committee to explore options for the space center, with a report due in February or March.
We meet again on November 28.
Originally
the district sought to budget $1.5 million for the rebuild, but has now
raised that to $2.5 million, which does not include the price of
property.
"We upped it because we are looking at other
possibilities," Smith said. "We are asking ourselves, is it adequate? Is
there anything we should add to it? We turn a lot of kids away at the
space center" because of space limitations.
A new facility with four large simulators will allow the Space Center to take four classes a day on field trips. This will double the number of students we currently take.
"We are just simply
exploring all options," Henshaw said. "It isn't necessarily that it has
to be on that property. The scope of it might be larger than what that
is."
The property could be used to expand Central Elementary
instead, and the district could purchase a larger property for the space
center.
It would be sad to leave Central School.
The center, named after the teacher who died on the space
shuttle Challenger, began as a classroom experiment by Victor
Williamson, who teaches at Central Elementary School in Pleasant Grove.
Starting with nothing more than an overhead projector, Williamson took
his students on a simulated space journey and found that they not only
enjoyed the learning experience, but retained information better than
they did when taught conventionally.
I did my first classroom space simulation in the spring of 1984. I still have the original scripts and plastic overlays for the overhead projector. Someone once told me, "Be careful what you wish for, it may come true." Look how this simple classroom experiment has evolved.
Through grants and donations,
Williamson was able to build a more advanced and larger scale program
at the school until year by year the space center became known statewide
and then nationally as a space education center. At its annual
scheduled maintenance check in August, however, the local fire marshal
discovered several electrical issues that needed to be resolved. There
were other issues with simulators that had to be changed and updated to
meet city and state codes, so the district shuttered it for the time.
