We Have Great Staff and Volunteers at Utah's Five Space EdVenture Centers. What Does it Take to Produce and Stage an Outstanding Summer Camp Season? Construction Update on the New CMSC. Imaginarium Theater

A few of the outstanding staff and volunteers at Renaissance Space Academy. All of this talent crammed into the Starship Voyager all at once for one 5 hour mission last Saturday caused a large disturbance in the Force.  There was a Chernobyl ionized blue glow around the school noticeable for miles in all directions

     Utah's Space EdVenture Centers:  Christa McAuliffe Space Center, Renaissance Space Academy, Reality's Edge Space Center, Telos Discovery Space Center, and Lions Gate Center.

     Great staff and volunteers are the heart of each of our programs at Utah's Space EdVenture Centers. We remind ourselves of that fact each time a crew of enthusiastic young astronauts board one of the 13 starships in fleet.  The importance of keeping our head in the game and giving 100 percent is perfectly summed up with this sign that hangs near Mr. Porter's office door at the Christa McAuliffe Space Center. 

     In a recent Facebook post, Mr. Porter wrote about starting every mission with the right frame of mind and to remember to make that flight the best experience the crew has ever had because it might be the only one they have.  Mr. Porter wrote: 

     "This phrase has been something we have been trying to keep in mind this year. We have been so busy with the new developments and many changes within the Space Center we wanted to make sure we don't lose our focus.... 
     So as a part of that here's a huge thank you to all of the amazing staff and volunteers of the Space Center. This last week they have been feverishly working to get us ready for summer with new stories, touch ups to the ship, repairs to equipment, and every other little aspect that makes our magic that much more potent. All with the goal to make it so every experience is unforgettable...."     

CMSC's Ian at work on phaser repair. Matt Ricks entertaining a space camper at last week's CMSC space camp.
Each doing his part to make every mission the best it can be.

     If you're a current member of staff or a volunteer at one of the Space EdVenture Centers I want to thank you for your dedication to our great endeavor of creating a spacefaring civilization. 
     "Why did you create this program?" is a question I've been asked many times since I opened the Christa McAuliffe Space Center nearly 30 years ago.  And usually in the same breath the questioner tries to answer his own question with, "Are you trying to get kids to want to be astronauts?"  
     The true answer to the question is simple; I created the Space EdVentures program to encourage kids to learn about space in the hopes that mankind will look up and see where destiny intends us to go. I want to create a space faring civilization. The first step toward that goal is to find ways to excite our students to excel in their schoolwork. Space exploration demands excellence in math, science, technology, engineering, and of course the arts and humanities - two subjects which enrich our lives and help us understand what it means to be human. Utah's five Space EdVenture centers, along with our friends at InfiniD and Dream Flight Adventures, are doing just that. 
     Our collective mission is realized everytime one of our starships ventures into the unknown. Thank you to all who work toward this goal. Have a great summer camp season!

Victor Williamson 

What Does it Take to Produce and Stage an Outstanding Summer Camp Season?  Let's Ask the Staff and Volunteers at the Space Academy   

The Space Academy's Bracken Funk hard at work creating the special effects needed for the Academy's new missions.

1.  New Missions.  Summer space camps need new missions.  Many campers are mult-center campers, meaning they fly in multiple simulators at any of Utah's five Space EdVenture Centers.  Imagine the pressure our centers are under to produce new missions every summer, something which has been done for the past 29 years.  Space EdVenture missions are not your average sci-fi.  Our missions cannot be character centered like you find in sci-fi books, movies, and TV shows.  They can't be planet centered stories (lots of time out of the ship) because our simulators are built in 21st century neighborhoods.  Hard to get Lehi to look like Vulcan.  Overall we do a pretty good job.  Sure there are the occasional stinkers (Saladin) but we like to forget those and move on. 

2.  Special Effects.  Creating cool animations is the next step once a mission has been written.  Not many of our staff know how to create eye popping tactical cards.  Those few who do are beyond busy at the moment.  

Mr. Funk and Spencer Baird loading the effects into Thorium in the USS Voyager's Control Room.  

3.  Loading everything into your mission control computers and testing to see if it displays and runs correctly.

4.  Props and Costuming.  Each mission requires costumes and props.  Kyan, a Space Academy top notch 8th grader, models his take on Piddlewee evening wear.  Piddlewee are Farpoint's Paklids.  They come from the planet Uck.  They're members of our union but constantly find ways of irritating Terran Space Command with their antics.   

5.  Landing Party Prep.  Every summer camp mission has a landing party or two. We call them "Away Missions".  Years ago we called excursions out of the simulators "Deck 21".  Deck 21 was usually the kindergarten hallway at Central Elementary.  
     Above you see Megan Warner and Tabitha working to put up a few black plastic barriers in the school's music room. During the summer the music room will be the bridge of a Piddlewee SpaceBug.  

 6.  Make-up.  Mr. Robinson is teaching several of the Space Academy volunteers how to apply make up.  Mr. Robinson is the Academy's InfiniD coordinator and teaches the Space Tech classes in addition to his history, speech, and debate classes.  Not only will the volunteers learn make-up, they will also learn how to create and apply darn good looking silicone wound prosthetics.     

7.  The proper liquid refreshment for a long summer camp season.  The USS Voyager is powered by fusion and jump engines which use helium 3 as fuel.  The Voyager's staff and volunteers require a different type of fuel to keep them going.  We keep the control room fully supplied.  A happy, hydrated staff makes for happy campers.  

8.  Dress rehearsals.  Every new mission needs at least one dress rehearsal to find bugs in the code and plot holes in the mission and landing parties.  Bracken, Megan, and Spencer discuss a few issues in the Voyager Control Room.

The New Christa McAuliffe Space Center and Central Elementary School Construction Update 

      As you can see in the two photos above, construction is moving ahead of schedule on the new Space Center and Central School.  Footings are being poured.  

Imaginarium Theater
The Best Videoettes From Around the World Edited for a Gentler Audience

A Special Report on the Space Centers Olympic Games Held on Memorial Day. Winners, Losers, and Those In Between. The Imaginarium.

Mr. Porter discovering he isn't as young as he use to be. He was awarded the participation award for
the Orion Pirate Starship Boarding Game

 Space Center Olympics

     The Space Center Olympics is a new Christa McAuliffe Space Center tradition held every Memorial Day. This year staff members from all of Utah's Space EdVenture Centers were invited to compete: the CMSC, Renaissance Space Academy, Reality's Edge Space Center, InfiniD, Telos Discovery Space Center, and the Lion's Gate Center (a few olympians represented multiple centers because of dual employment).  A good turnout meant lots of fun.  Sadly I was not in attendance so the photographs in today's post were gathered from multiple participants: Matt Ricks, Jon Parker, Connor Larsen, Audrey Henricksen, and Lindsay Hatch.   Thank you. 

     The festivities started with the Opening Ceremony held in the gym. The Federation Anthem was played along with proper tributes given to the Romulans and Klingons to whom many are fondly particular (those inclined to cheat their way through the challenges).  

 

     Strategizing started right after teams were formed.  Here you see one team plotting and scheming in hopes of figuring their way through the events to the gold medals.  Connor Larsen was caught promoting a scheme involving bribes and payouts to the judges.  Orion fully supported the idea, Brylee was disgusted.     

The Orion Pirate Boarding Challenge

     Not being there means I must use my overgrown imagination to determine the true nature and purpose of each event.  We start with the Orion Pirate Boarding Challenge.  Everyone knows the hoops an Orion Pirate must pass through, around, up, and over in order to reach a simulator's bridge and take the ship by sheer force and the honest calls from an unbiased supervisor.  This obstacle course represents that challenge.  Only those who passed through without disturbing the strings were awarded their "It's a Pirate's Life for Me!" eyepatch and spyglass.   

     Matt Ricks figured "What the Heck!" and found his own way through the obstacle course - a move very similar to the way he took a bridge during his days as a black shirt volunteer.       Matt was one who always relied on the poor calls of a bridge supervisor to take a bridge single handedly from a group of unsuspecting 4th graders or family reunions where grandma played the chief of security.  Nathan King is impressed and is considering hiring Matt to teach his volunteers the tricks of the trade at the Lions Gate Center.   

The Taste Test Challenge

     Is it some exotic alien cheese with an unpronounceable name you're tasting or the sweat from the sock of an unshowered volunteer on his third day of summer camp?  Only those with discerning palates and strong stomachs survived this challenge. Smart contestants stayed low to the ground. The unpleasant gut wrenching aromas hovered green at about the 4 foot level.   

The Dabbing Contest Winner

     Mason Perry, our resident Space EdVentures Time Lord, won the dabbing contest.  He was the only person enrolled in that particular competition.  Everyone thought it would be good to let him shine at something he does reasonably well.  We are all about staff self esteem at the space centers.   

  

The Can You Read the Mind of a Flight Director Competition

     Jon Parker won the "Can you Read the Mind of a Flight Director" competition at this year's Space Olympics.  Various Flight Directors stood around the corner near the student restrooms and issued play, pause and next card orders in their normal voices.  Jon amazed everyone, including Judge Dylan Hunter, on his uncanny ability to hear those faint, mumbled orders and repeat them word for word. 

     "I was trained by the great Oz himself, the first flight director of them all, the amazing Victor Williamson," Jon bragged.  "He expected his supervisors and volunteers to read his mind or hear his orders mid flight no matter where you where in the Voyager and no matter how loud the music or explosions." 

     Jon is truly amazing and well deserves the medal.   

 

The Pass the Message On Competition

     

     One essential skill needed by every member of staff is accurately conveying messages from control room to control room or from center director to staff.  The person to person competition gave the olympians an opportunity to showcase their memory skills.

Ian passing the message on to Lindsey. Either that or asking her out for date.

The teams lined up down the hall waiting for the message to begin.  Casey Voeks representing InfinD ensured that every starter knew the message before the starter's pistol sent them on their way.

Receiving teams waited up and down the hallway.

And then the running and whispering began.

At the end everyone gathered to hear the real message.

 Who Can Decode the Fastest

Conner Larsen giving it his best.  Everyone knows how valuable it is to have coded messages
to keep that special camper busy.  Another reason why Conner did so well.  

Quick Change Competition

     One of the favorite competitions is the Quick Change Contest. See who can change into a costume the quickest without any advance warning from an exhausted flight director.  "You, you're the ship's doctor, go out there right now and make up a character and backstory and keep the crew occupied with a medical problem long enough so I can go take a pee." 

Giving a Camper Directions Competition

     Staff were asked to give concise instructions to other staff who played new black shirt volunteers.  Mason won with his explicit instruction to Brylee and Lindsey on how to properly fold a costume and put it in its rightful place.  I'm told people are still talking about how good he was to this day.  

Space Poker with Isolinear Chips

     A break between competitions led to a friendly game of Isolinear Chip Poker in the Discovery Room. 

 

     Natalie Anderson won again this year. When asked why the headphones she responded by explaining a recent and sudden occurance of partial deafness brought on by excessively loud music played by Tabitha in the Odyssey.  She won by having two green, one red, and one orange chip along with one red wire.  I don't understand all the rules to the game and don't care enough to ask.  I do know that the orange chip fell out of her sleeve when she stretched.    

Space Olympic Attire

     Special uniforms, hats, scarfs, etc are usually found at real Olympic events so why wouldn't this be true at the Space Center Olympics? 

      Hats off to everyone who participated in this year's Space Center Olympics.  A fun day was had by all.

Mr. Williamson

Perfect for a Warm Summer Evening.  
The Imaginarium