New Space Center T-Shirts. The Super Overnight Camp. New Farpoint Cadets. Mission Writing. Pictures from the CMSEC's Silhouette. The Imaginarium.

Hello Space Fans!
     Here's Thursday's News Wrap Up.

Discovery Space Center and the Super Overnight Camp

     The Discovery Space Center hosts its first Super Overnight Camp of the 2014 summer season this evening. A Super Overnight Camp is something to try if you've never done one. The missions begin at 5:00 P.M. and end the following morning at 10:00 A.M.  There are a few other differences which set a Super Overnighter apart from a regular Overnight Camp.  
     1. You get supper on a Super Overnighter.
     2. Your mission stops for the night between 2:00 - 3:00 A.M. instead of 11:00 P.M.
     3. The Super Overnight Mission is more intense, with several landing parties and daring
         adventures.
     Visit the Discovery Space Center's website to book a Super Overnight Camp for you and you friends:  discoveryspacecenter.com

Two New Farpoint Voyager Cadets Join the Ranks

     The Voyagers at Farpoint are pleased to introduce you to Thomas and Brylee, our two newest cadets.  Thomas and Brylee recently finished their volunteering observations and passed their admissions interview.  They are both outstanding students who show great enthusiasm for our program and for volunteering at the Space Education Centers. 
     Our  Voyagers chapter now has 141 members.  farpointstation.org
     Welcome to the the Voyagers Farpoint Chapter!

Thomas

Brylee

Mission Writing at the Discovery Space Center
   

      I was passing the Discovery Space Center on my way home from doing my Timp Cave trail walk the other day and found a few of the DSC's staff hanging out at Quirky's, the awesome little snack shack on the grounds Stone Gate Center for the Arts in Pleasant Grove.  BJ was leading the discussion.  They were brainstorming some new ideas for one of the DSC's new summer missions.  BJ confessed they were also waiting for Quirky's to open.
He offered to buy me one of Quirky's frozen delights, snow cones with out of this world flavors, if I would be so kind as to tell The Troubadour's readers all about the DSC's awesome summer missions lineup.  I declined.  It's not proper for a journalist to accept any type of bribe meant to influence his or her objective reporting of the news.  Besides, he'll have to do a lot better than a measly snow cone if he wants special treatment - that's for sure :)

The Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center Tells Silhouette.       

     I couldn't resist dropping in at the Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center (spacecenter@alpineschools.org) to see the staff and volunteers in action telling twelve hour mission Silhouette.  I caught them just as they were preparing lunch for the campers.

     Nicole VandenBos was the flight director the Magellan's mission Silhouette.  Mike played the president (in the white suit) of some planet whose name I've forgotten which is struggling with a terrorist insurgency.    

     Lunch was part of the mission.  Tables were set up in the Discovery Room so the campers could enjoy lunch with the president. 

     Megan Warner checked the buffet and the tables before the campers disembarked the Magellan's Bridge for their VIP luncheon.

      Everything went smoothly.  The campers had a great time with plenty to eat - a necessity for any camp at the CMSEC.  They enjoyed meeting the president and hearing of his troubles with those dastardly terrorists.  Of course the president was doing his best to persuade them to come to his aid.    

     After lunch the crew was briefed on their mission.  The CMSEC did an excellent job creating immersive videos to make the mission even more real.  I was seriously impressed with the professionalism.  

     Stanton Everett is the planet's public enemy number one.  I'd love to tell you more about this outstanding mission, but won't.  I suggest you book a place on the next camp and experience it for yourself.  

     Each telling of Silhouette requires several of our Farpoint Voyager Cadets.  The cadets play the acting roles and get to challenge the crew in the obstacle course set up just for this mission in the school's hallways.   

CMSEC Gets New Camp T-Shirts and Staff Jackets

   
     Gone are the standard black Space Center T-shirts we've used for the past fifteen years.  Black shirts are now reserved for the staff and volunteers.  Campers at the CMSEC get to choose from the colors above.  The logos are the same, but the colors are eye-catching.  What do you think of these new colors?  

     Space Center Assistant Director Jon Parker models the new Space Center jackets ordered for the CMSEC's upper management, and those willing to buy their own.  Jon kept his on most of the day, ignoring the hot summer weather outside.  

Mr. Williamson

The Imaginarium

Dream Flight Adventures Announces Creator's Canvas. The Imaginarium.

Hello Space EdVenture Fans!

     Admiral Starblaze from Dream Flight Adventures just posted an interesting article on Dream Flight's blog.  Remember, Dream Flight Adventures is a simulator / curriculum company owned by long time Space Center enthusiast Gary Gardiner. The company has one simulator at Shaler Area Middle School with three more in development.  Gary caught the Space Center bug as a young man when he attended several of our space camps in Pleasant Grove. Now that same experience Gary had as a boy is available to thousands of students in Pennsylvania through his Dream Flight Adventures.

Mr. W.

     

Choose Your Own Adventure

Posted on June 16, 2014 by Admiral Starblayze

Courtesy of Richard Johnson’s Imagination Series

It’s been a bit quiet on the Dream Flight blog lately, which is a sure sign that we’re up to more than our usual shenanigans.  We just got back from presenting at the Games, Learning, and Society Conference in Madison, Wisconsin, and we have several interesting new developments to report on in the near-ish future.

But for today, I want to take a moment to chat about something that isn’t exactly new but certainly is important and sometimes gets overlooked.

We like to make a big to-do whenever we unveil new missions (like Countdown andContaminant, our latest additions to our mission library).  We talk about the premise, highlight the curriculum components, and give a sneak peak into a few of the main characters.  Our missions are rich and elaborate stories, so it’s easy to get caught up in the details of their plots.

As a result, however, sometimes we gloss over the fact that each of our missions represents arich and fully interactive virtual world.  Yes, our Flight Directors can take intrepid crews on adventures from the beginning, through the middle, and to the end of our stories… but they’re equally free to invent stories of their own—based on their own imaginations or even the actions of the kids!

This has always been the case, but lately we’ve made the creative process even easier for our Flight Directors by packaging up a collection of virtual world construction tools and putting them at their fingertips.  We call them Creator’s Canvases, and they are completely open-ended versions of our virtual worlds that give educators powerful tools to create any learning adventure they want. The possibilities are endless!

The Imaginarium