Silver Perry, long time volunteer and member of the Space Center's staff, retired from active duty after his final mission "Whispers," Saturday, October 28. It was a good mission to retire on. He leaves his position as Phoenix Set Director and with it a long legacy of innovations for a simulator he was devoted to.
Silver's time at the CMSC started when he was in junior high school. He was one of my Farpoint Cadets for our Voyager Club's Long Duration Mission Program. You see him in the photo on the left with his squadron on a cold Saturday morning. He started volunteering at the Space Center around the same time.
Silver had a thing for watches back then. I never knew what he would be sporting on his wrists any given Saturday. I referred to him as "The Time Lord". He was also, and remained so up until his retirement, camera shy. It was tough to get him to stop for a photo. Time Lords are like that.
In August 2018 Silver graduated to the official "Time Lord" Space Center status and was awarded his Supervisor Blues.
On August 3, 2019 Silver flight directed his first solo paid Phoenix private mission. I stopped by the CMSC to celebrate his accomplishment that day and found him briefing his crew in the Kiva.
It would be an adult crew! No worries, Silver handled it like a pro. He didn't have a second chair. Yes, the Phoenix can be flown with one staff, but with an adult crew you really need a good second chair.
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| Silver ready to go solo |
I was tempted to offer my services as his second chair but knew I'd make matters worse. "The Magellan has a full staff," I said to Silver. "Let me go see if I can't wrangle someone to come in to give you a hand." Shifting staff from ship to ship was something I had to do on a regular basis during my time at the CMSC helm. I was confident someone would be willing to help.
Tyler Gotcher, who by the way is the current Magellan Set Director, offered to change ships. He didn't hesitate even though he wanted to work the Magellan 5 hour. He saw the need and took care of it.
Tyler Gotcher, Back in the day
So how do we sum up the time and dedication of Silver Perry to the Space Center? We begin by saying that he was not just an ordinary Set Director; he was an innovator of the highest order. His dedication to making the Starship Phoenix the ship it is today is for me, inspirational. He was visionary in his understanding of the Phoenix, making that small simulator a laboratory of excellence.
We can also say that Silver's pursuit of perfection was evident in every corner of the Phoenix. From the layout and use of the ship's control room to the bridge itself, Silver's attention to detail was impressive.
Silver's legacy is not just about the physical improvements he made to the ship but also the sense of camaraderie and pride he instilled in his staff and volunteers. He fostered an environment where everyone could feel as if they belonged to this great enterprise; an environment where volunteers and staff felt inspired to do their best for the ship and the Space Center.
Silver Perry's retirement leaves a void that will be challenging to fill. His innovative spirit, his pursuit of excellence, and boundless creativity set a standard that will serve as an inspiration for future Set Directors.
Skyler Carr Travels the World Preaching the Gospel of Experiential Education, the InfiniD Learning Way.
I've been SO EXCITED that we get to participate in the GESS conference in Dubai this fall (one of the biggest edtech conferences in the world). Well, that excitement just got turned up to 11 when I found out that I was chosen to present a workshop AND appear on a "Future of Education" panel.
I was invited to host a workshop at the global education conference in Dubai — which was fun because it was directly on the exhibit hall floor. This means if you make enough noise, people will inevitably be drawn to the ruckus.I’ve always been more than happy to raise a ruckus. Loved meeting so many amazing educators this week! #gessdubai #infinidlearning
Thank you #stemmena and #teachmiddleeast for inviting us to come out and share our research! We made so many new friends (truly the dearest of friends because they put up with me ranting and raving for 60 minutes on a stage).
Picture me excited screaming like a teenage girl at a Justin Beiber concert in 2009.
This week’s adventure: Dublin, Ireland!I’m introducing our technology at the IB World Conference, and it’s so fun to see their reaction when they see how we can make any lesson a ridiculously engaging group experience.Data driven experiential learning baby!
What is Infini-D Learning? The Company’s Co-Founder Explains
“We take a science standard, we build a dramatic story around it. Something that's really exciting and fun. Something that's going to be like Magic School Bus meets an escape room on steroids,” says Brooks Heder, co-founder of Infini-D Learning.
While missions focus on STEM concepts currently, Infini-D Learning plans to expand missions into other subject areas.
In the meantime, Infini-D Learning is already garnering accolades. The State Educational Technology Directors Association (SETDA) recently named Infini-D Learning to its Emerging Partners program, and of this year’s emerging partners, it was both the judges and people’s choice award winner.
What is Infini-D Learning?
Infini-D Learning lets teachers choose from standards-aligned missions that provide students with an interactive and fun learning experience, utilizing existing classroom technology – screen displays and standard-issue student devices. The missions are designed to be the culmination of a lesson or unit. Preparing for one provides students with a goal and can help them understand why they have to learn abstract-seeming science concepts.
“We're not just talking about the water cycle, we're talking about the water cycle because we have a mission at the end of this week,” Heder says. The experience will also help the lesson stick in the minds of students.
For instance, when they use unit conversion on a mission, they’ll remember, “Oh, yeah, when those asteroids were falling toward the planet, and we had to save the planet by using our knowledge of unit conversion,” Heder says.
How Was Infini-D Learning Founded?
“We were a group of founders who didn't find complete fulfillment with the education system as it was,” Heder explains.
As an elementary school student, Heder had been inspired by an extraordinary math teacher who made learning come alive with group simulations. “He started with a boombox and overhead slides and hiding behind his desk and doing different characters, and sending his kids on these elaborate missions," he says. "That transitioned into this full kind of Disneyland-like set where kids would field trip and have this amazing group experience.”
Infini-D Learning started with the goal of recreating these kinds of experiences. Initially, they focused on field trips and missions that took place on elaborate sets. Those became an incredible success and they wanted to be able to offer the experiences to more students.
“It was like a movie set, you'd have cool lights, and spacey stuff, and steps and platforms and all these things, and that was so fun,” Heder says. He and his cofounders asked themselves if they could recreate that experience using tech that teachers and students already had access to.
Ultimately, they developed a haptic hands-on experience with a combination of classroom screens, speakers, student devices, pre-recorded music, and characters.
“We found we could get a very similar result to the set,” Heder says. “The set is really cool for the first few minutes, and then they get into the mission. What we saw with our current [offering] is that it can still reach those same levels of excitement, yet you get the scalability and the ability for teachers to implement it in an easy, simple way.”
What Else Should You Know About Infini-D Learning?
As a company, Infini-D Learning is dedicated to fighting boredom, busy work, and student isolation in education, and the missions are designed with those goals expressly in mind, Heder says. He believes the best way for teachers to learn about Infini-D Learning is to try one of the free missions with students as that will give them a full sense of its appeal.
“We built it with kids in mind,” he says. “We are really passionate about making sure the kids come first, not building a solution that the kids aren't into, that happens way too often in education. So we spent a lot of time in the classroom watching and observing and building something that the kids are crazy about.”
Imaginarium Theater
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