The Alpine School District Building Rental Committee voted "No" to the Space EdVentures Foundation's proposal to use the Space Center's simulators to continue the Space Center's 22 year history of offering after school private parties, classes, camps and the Computer Programming Guild. The Foundation's proposal also included restarting the popular Space Center volunteer program. No reasons were given in the notification email.
The Building Rental Committee classified the Foundation as a Class II rental. Under the District's Standard Rental Agreement, non-profit organizations, like the Space EdVentures Foundation, are considered Class II organizations. Class II organizations are charged $60 per hour - per room used. In addition to the room rental, the Foundation would be charged additional fees to use the space simulator's equipment (computers, projectors, sound systems etc). The Foundation was hoping to get a discounted rate by creating a partnership with the District to restart the Space Center's popular discontinued programs and support the simulators at Central School.
The Bad News
The Foundation cannot afford these terms, therefore, its work to restore the Space Center's volunteer program, public missions, camps, classes and programming club comes to an end. The Space EdVentures Foundation's Board of Directors expressed disappointed with the committee's decision, but not surprise. The Foundation will move ahead with its mission of bringing the Space Center experience to all the people in our communities who have a desire to participate in a one of a kind educational Space EdVenture.
The Good News
The Space Center's volunteer program, classes and programming club will continue through the Foundation's Farpoint Academy at its new home, The Discovery Space Center in Pleasant Grove. The Discovery Space Centers offers school field trips, private parties, day camps and overnight camps. Contact them at Discoveryspacecenter.com to book your party and camp. Farpoint Academy's web site will be online as soon as it finalizes its class schedule.
This spring, in addition to its programs at the Discovery Space Center, the Space EdVentures Foundation's Farpoint Academy, hopes to open a second learning site in Lehi for people who live in the northern part of Utah county. Discussions with the sponsoring organization are under way and going well. Watch the blog for further news as it becomes available.
Pleasant Grove's Discovery Space Center Opens for Field Trips
Two Lakeview Academy buses arriving at the Discovery Space Center for the Center's first field trip.
The Discovery Space Center (DSC) opened Thursday for field trips. One hundred sixth graders from Lakeview Academy arrived at 9:40 A.M. to participate in Discovery's four hour program, consisting of a planetarium show, a space science class and a starship simulation in one of Discovery's four starship simulators.
"The kids cheered at the end of the program. It was awesome!" said Center Director, Casey Voeks. "I didn't know if we going to pull it off, but we did. It was a madhouse around here Wednesday night as we tried to finish the ships and get everything ready. Some of us were here all night."
Programming was the biggest problem facing the Discovery staff. Casey explained their predicament. "Our simulator computer programs weren't finished, so we called Gary Gardiner in Pennsylvania and asked if we could use his simulator's programs as an emergency back up. He said yes and sent a revised copy that worked on our older laptops." Gary is the founder and director of
Dream Flight Adventures, a Space EdVentures partner organization in Pennsylvania.
The Space EdVentures Foundation congratulations the Discovery Space Center.
The Programming Guild's, John Robe, Accepts the Sterling Scholar Award
John Robe, seen center in the photo above, is a member of the Space EdVenture Foundation's Programming Guild. He stared as a Space Center volunteer before joining the Space Center's former Programming Guild. We expect to hear great things from John over the upcoming years.
Congratulations John!
Space and Science News
This image may look like TV static, but it's actually a representation of the irrational number pi (perhaps the only thing we remember from middle-school geometry class). Pi starts off as 3.1415 but goes on literally forever, and this picture shows the first 4 million digits of "forever." Each digit from 0 to 9 has been assigned a different color, and each color pops up here as a square pixel, in order, line by line. Math geeks will be pleased to know that the team behind this image has alsocreated an interactive applet that lets you take a closer look at the number in 500,000-digit sections.
In what could go down as one of the great Eureka! moments in physics – and win somebody the Nobel Prize – scientists said Thursday that after a half-century quest, they are confident they have found a Higgs boson, the elusive subatomic speck sometimes called the "God particle."
The existence of the particle was theorized in 1964 by the British physicist Peter Higgs to explain why matter has mass. Scientists believe the particle acts like molasses or snow: When other tiny basic building blocks pass through it, they stick together, slow down and form atoms.
Read On
Fatal Distraction: Teen Drivers And Passengers Are A Deadly Mix
Sometimes to get change, you need a tipping point. Maybe this week will be it: Since Sunday, 15 teenagers have died in major car accidents around the U.S. Six died after crashing into a pond in Ohio. Five died when they crashed into a tanker truck in Texas. Four died when they crashed into a creek in Illinois.
And that's just the crashes that were major and notable enough to make national news. One teen in Colorado died Sunday when the teen driver of a car he was in crashed into the side of a mobile home. Read On
PE lessons must be a breeze for these kids after their walk to school — across a cliff face.
For an hour, pupils as young as six edge along a crumbling 2ft-wide
path cut into the rock up a mountain as an irrigation ditch. There is a safer route but it takes twice as long. Walking home too, the kids at Banpo school in Guizhou, China, have learned the high road tops the slow road.
The Imaginarium
If you Don't Use It, You'll Lose It!
A disturbing find for many a shopper.
Sometimes life can turn on a dime.
Never judge someone by his or her circumstances.
Poor Pluto
What's up with English?
The perfect, all around decoration
Congratulations to our Catholic readers on the election of a new Pope.
