The Williamson's Celebrate Thanksgiving. Imaginarium Theater.

  

                       Does your kitchen look like this on Thanksgiving Day?
    

     I'm hoping everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Our family's Feastorama was held at my niece's home in Highland.  Around 65 family members attended. The upmarket family members were dressed in their fineries as if they were eating at a nice restaurant.  The more practical of us (those who don't care what anyone thinks) came in our finest sweatpants with  elastic stretchable waistbands.

We never know what the little'uns are up to at these gatherings. The adults are too busy with their faces buried in the feeding trough

      

     At family gatherings like this, our family's table discussions can turn heated. We have a broad range of political affiliations in our family, especially between the older and younger generations. We have the right and left wings of the family along with those who's beliefs border dangerously close to socialism.  Me personally, I'm a card carrying independent whose opinions are fine tuned to be exactly the opposite of whatever group I'm sitting with. If I'm surrounded by hard core Republicans, I preach the gospel of free health care and free education.  Once the table has agreed on my heretical state and fantasize of burning me at the stake, I excuse myself to go hunting for unsuspecting tables. Usually there is a liberal - progressive conclave needing to be disturbed by my ramblings on the last rigged election and my thoughts supporting a more radical implementation of the 2nd amendment. 

     Do I believe what I'm saying? Most of the time I don't. I say what I say to inflame passions until all around me are frothing at the mouth and hyperventilating.  It's good entertainment for myself and those who know what I'm doing. I am a connoisseur of chaos and a disrupter of the peace. "Keep 'em guessing," is my motto.

     My methods also work nicely with the various religious factions in the family. We have the High Mormons, Middle Mormons, and Lost Mormons in addition to those who've converted to humanism.  I have talking points for each group prepared ahead of time. Each point is guaranteed to produce a negative reaction. The response I got from the High Mormons after hearing my testimony of reincarnation was well worth the fact that I'll be excluded from certain email strings and multiple text messages in the short future. My phone will remain silent for the next little while until someone needs something from me. 

Great Grandma suffers from dementia.  She requires special protective gear at these gatherings to keep her food from ruining her clothes.

      When all is said and done, I remind the family that we are a loving family that respects and cherishes diversity because diverse is what this family is, like so many others in our modern world.  

     I love the fact that my niece's home has a cozy Decompression Room (the rarely used living room just off the family room). Diffusers scent the room in a special DoTerra blend of fragrances tailored for family events like Thanksgiving; picture the smells of green pastures surrounded by Ponderosa Pines and accented with just a wisp of morning sunshine lingering in the air to help you ease quickly into your happy place.  A Candle or two decorates the room with dancing light. Music tugs at the ear with melodies written in consultation with cardiologists.  Ten minutes in the Decompression Room will lower your blood pressure by 10-15 points. 

     I retreat to the Decompression Room when I reach my limit and there are none left to agitate. I like to sit quietly and watch the teenagers stare at their phones.  You see, this is their hang out room. I walk in, they greet me with a nod or slight wave. I find an open spot to sit and let my meal digest. The teens have granted me the title of "Honorary Teenager" which lets me enter the room and sit amongst them as long as I don't say anything "lame" or question them on any subject which could be construed as passing judgement.  

The special place out back and around by the chicken coop for those needing their tobacco and coffee. While I don't do either, I find these family members refreshing because they cling to the old ways from the home counties of western Montana and the Black Hills of South Dakota

     It was a lovely Thanksgiving.  Now it is time to get a few things done to be ready for school on Monday.  While my students may not be overly enthusiastic to return, I welcome getting back to well scheduled days and blessed routines.  There is a lot to be said for knowing where to be and what to do at any given time.  It takes the guesswork out of living.... :)

Mr. Williamson 

Imaginarium Theater. 

The Best Videos From Around the World Edited for a Gentler Audience  

The Director of the Discovery Space Center at American Heritage School to Perform in HCT's Fiddle on the Roof. The Sweet Way to Teach Math. Mercy Strike II Debuts at The Space Place. Imaginarium Theater.

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 Farpoint Voyager Club's Tiger Squadron - 

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

Happy 33rd Birthday to the Christa McAuliffe Space Center! See the Original Starship Controls. Imaginarium Theater

On November 8, 1990, ago the Space Center opened its doors to the world with a massive open house and dedication program.  Hundreds of people attended. The lines to tour the Starship Voyager stretched all the way down the hallway of Central School.  We filled the school's gym for the program. Our guest speaker was Senator Jake Garn, Utah's Senator who went into space aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1985.  

Fast forward thirty-three years to today.  Writing as the founder, I want to say thank you to the many hundreds of staff and volunteers who've worked hard over the decades to make the Space Center what it is today; and thank you to the hundreds of thousands of people who've attended a Space Center field trip, camp, private mission, class, etc. for your support.

My inspiration to build the first starship Voyager at Central School in 1989-1990 was rooted in the classroom starship I operated from 1983-1990. The classroom simulator was simple; student desks, poster board controls, a boom box cassette player, an overhead projector, overheads, and a good story. We did our classroom deep space explorations as part of my sixth grade curriculum. More elaborate simulations were used for my Young Astronaut Chapter meetings. Instead of using my classroom, we set up our desks and poster controls in the gym and used the entire school as our starship. 

The original paper helm station for the classroom starship Pegasus.

     I'm often asked, "How did this place [the Space Center] get started?" It's a story I've shared hundreds of times over the last thirty years. Many of you Troubadours know the story so I'll be brief.  
     Spring 1983. Because of a clerical mistake at BYU, my 3rd grade student teaching assignment in Springville was mistakenly given to another student. I was called into the education department office and asked if I'd be kind enough to take a 6th grade student teaching position at Central Elementary School in Pleasant Grove. Mr. Mike Thompson was to be my cooperating teacher. I didn't know where Pleasant Grove was but gladly took the assignment; I liked the 6th grade curriculum and the more mature students.

     

My 6th Grade Student Teaching Class. Mr. Thompson is on the left. Mr. Emal (principal) on the right.
This was their class picture taken in September 1982

     Mr. Thompson asked me to teach the space science unit.  Knowing this unit would make up a large part of my student teaching grade, I wanted to impress my professor with something out of the box and unusual.  I decided to copy Carl Sagan's Cosmos TV series and take the class out into space to witness first hand what I was teaching. Classroom computers were unheard of in the Spring of 1983 so I created poster board controls for the student's desks. I drew most of my visuals (tacticals) on overhead projector plastic 81/2 by 11 sheets and ran the simulations from behind my desk with an overhead projector. My cassette player boom box provided the music. My voice did the sound effects and different voices and accents for my main engineer, computer, and aliens.  

     That spring, the class and I took several voyages into space.  The professor was impressed and gave me an A.  Mr. Thompson enjoyed it and wrote me up a glowing recommendation.  My student teaching ended with a job offer. Mr. Frandsen, the other sixth grade teacher in room 20, announced his retirement and the job was offered.  The rest, as they say, is history.

The poster board weapons and engine controls. The wear and tear speaks of the many missions and hours of fun
this poster provided my students over those many years.

     The poster board controls for the USS Pegasus were easy to use. The student spoke the button's name while pushing the button.  From behind my desk, I'd year the student and make the appropriate sound whilst searching through my stack of overheads for the right visual effect.  

These young Starfleet officers are in their mid early 50's today

Here you go, the USS Pegasus sensors station.

The ship's transporter station. Yes, the dials actually spin

The navigation station. I used water based markers to hand draw a map of the sector on the plastic covered top section.
The students used rulers and protractors to plot and speak their courses.

  

One of the engineering posters for the USS Pegasus.

The communications poster controls.

The inspiration for my classroom simulations came from Carl Sagan's television series "Cosmos" which aired in 1980. I watched Cosmos while I was a student at BYU on a small 12 inch black and white TV.  In Cosmos, Carl Sagan ventured deep into space aboard his starship to inspire the American public to look up and realize where life originated and where it can go. Even today I'll rewatch the opening to Cosmos on YouTube and feel the same feelings I did then.

  

The Space Center's mission is the same as it was on our opening day in 1990, we work to create a space-faring civilization.

Carl Sagan said, "Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known".  Perhaps that something is ourselves, and the knowledge that we are all one, woven together into the eternal fabric of time and space.  

Ad Astra!

Victor  

A few of the Space Center Volunteers Created this Short Birthday Celebration Showing the Current Fleet of Six Starships: Cassini, Magellan, Phoenix, Odyssey, Galileo, and Falcon

Imaginarium Theater

The Week's Best Videos From Around the World Edited for a Gentler Audience