Thursday, July 22, 2010

Picture Time: Mission and Art/Fotos: Weltraummission und Kunst



Jonathan's mission on Tuesday was organized by one of the many Challenger Learning Centers in the country.  The purpose of this activity is to bring older children together and let them fly a mission with a spaceship.  The group gets divided in different teams like medical, navigation, data, etc.  Each team has a certain list of tasks to do and has to make decisions which have an effect on the whole mission.  Things can go wrong and the mission might fail.  Jonathan was in a space station that wanted to send out a probe to intercept Halley's Comet to study its composition.  Some other children, in another room, were in the mission control center on earth.  Each room really looked like either the international space station or a mission control center.  After half the time was over, the children switched rooms so that each child got to be in each location.  At the end of the mission, each team presented what it had done, what problems it had encountered, and what it had learned.  Later we all got to tour the facility. 


Badge the children wore/Anstecknadel für die Kinder






Entrance to Mission Control/Eingang zum Kontrollzentrum




View from mission control of space station/Blick vom Kontrollzentrum auf die Raumstation


Jonathan belonged to the Navigation Team/Jonathan gehörte zum Navigationsteam


Decontamination/Entgiftung


Space station/Raumstation






Clean room wiith probe/Putzraum mit Sonde


Probe/Sonde

Testing chemicals/Testen von Chemikalien


While Jonathan was doing this, the rest of us visited the Quick Arts Center, which is located on the campus of St. Bonaventure University.  We toured their European and Asian art collections.  Afterwards the children could paint tiles which were put together as a mosaic. 

















Roofs of St. Bonaventure/Dächer von St. Bonaventure




Children's Mosaic (children were 10 and under)/Mosaik der Kinder (die Kinder waren 10 und jünger)

Jonathans Weltraummission ist von einem der vielen Challenger Learning Zentren hier in Amerika organisiert worden.  Die Kinder, die daran teilgenommen haben, sollten  das Zusammenspiel vieler Faktoren während einer Weltraummission erleben.  Die Kinder waren in verschiedene Gruppen aufgeteilt, wie Versorgung, Datenkontrolle, Navigation, usw.  Jede Gruppe hatte eine Liste mit Aufgaben, die sie erledigen mußte.  Die getroffenen Entscheidungen wirkten sich immer auf die ganze Mission aus, sie konnte auch mißglücken.  Jonathan war in einer Raumstation, die eine Sonde ausschicken wollte, um den Kometen Halley zu untersuchen.  Die Hälfte der Kinder waren in dieser Raumstation, die andere Hälfte auf der Erde in einem Kontrollzentrum.  Diese waren in verschiedenen Räumen untergebracht und sahen ganz echt aus.  Später haben beide Gruppen gewechselt.  Am Ende der Mission, die übrigens ein Erfolg war, haben alle Mannschaften ihre Erlebnisse, Probleme und neue Kenntnisse vorgestellt.  Dann durften auch Familienangehörige die Räumlichkeiten sehen. 


Während Jonathan im Weltraum herumschwirrte, war der Rest der Familie im Kunstmuseum (Quick Arts Center) der St. Bonaventure Universität.  Wir haben eine Führung durch die europäische und asiatische Kunst bekommen.  Anschließend durften die Kinder Kacheln anmalen, die dann zu einem Mosaik zusammengefügt worden sind. 


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6 comments:

  1. hello eva, what a wonderful day! it's so nice to hear about. the university buildings are beautiful. i find your blog very inspiring, and have linked to it. all the best, dorina in nyc

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  2. Hello Dorina,

    Thank you so much. I've visited your blog also and enjoyed the pretty pictures. I've never really been to NYC although we live in the same state. It just seems to be so far away. One of these days we have to go though to get new German passports. You have to do this at the German consulate. That will give us a chance to see the city! Whenever my father comes from Germany to visit, he loves to spend a few days in the big city before coming to rural Western New York.

    Do you have two or three daughters you homeschool? What kind of materials do you use?

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  3. Wow, what an amazing day! Thank you for sharing all these lovely pictures with us as well.

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  4. You are very welcome. Maybe there is a Challenger Learning Center in your area? They are great for grades 5 through 8.

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  5. hello eva, i have three daughters, but only the youngest two do i homeschool these days. my oldest is 16 and has lately been taking group classes with other older homeschoolers with a local tutor. she has also been studying on her own for the biology SAT. she stage manages and works lighting for various friends' productions, and also does a lot of knitting, working on her own personal patterns and other people's patterns. for my younger two, i work with many library books recommended by christopherus and ambleside. i have also used zaner-bloser's GUM workbooks, and singapore math. i am always interested in new materials other homeschoolers are working with . . but find i don't always have the time to investigate! i need to start organizing my plans for the coming year, but must wait while my husband and i attempt some room rearranging and decluttering in these next few weeks.
    p.s. if you come to NYC, let me know. maybe we can meet at pier 84 on 44th street and run through it's beautiful fountain, or something else just as nice. (http://lifeinane.blogspot.com/2009/07/spiral-fountain_28.html) and (http://lifeinane.blogspot.com/2009/07/spiral-fountain.html)

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  6. How interesting. We also use some Singapore Math, and I like Christopherus and Ambleside. I haven't seen the GUM workbooks. I'll look up the fountain you mentioned.

    What kind of productions does your oldest daughter do? Is it dance?

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