This morning before school I shared the start of this video with Rachel, who is VERY interested in science, space, and all things NASA. It’s a 25 minute tour of the International Space Station by Sunita Williams, who was the commander of the station until this past November.
Rachel, YOU could be recording a tour like this from space in 15 or 20 years!
(I’m posting this here so Rachel can watch the rest of this after school or another day, and you can too!)
Hat tip to Mike Gras who shared this video on Facebook last night.
This Friday I’m going to share a presentation at TEDxOU in Norman, Oklahoma. I’m planning to talk about the importance of storychasing the voices of our families, and am going to tell a story (among others) about Fred McPherson. Fred was like a grandfather to me, and a father to my mom and uncle who also spent some wonderful summer months with him and his wife, Alice, in Itasca, Texas.
In October 2005, my parents interviewed Fred about his life. This is the 78 minute audio interview they recorded with Fred.
I am going to share a 92 second edited excerpt of that interview in my TEDx talk on Friday, which I’ve shared to SoundCloud using the title, “Remembering the Early Days of Radio.”
Rest in peace, beloved Fred. My how you’d be amazed to see how your family members are communicating now around the world.
Sarah gave two wonderful performances last night at the Poteet Theater in Oklahoma City last night for her winter vocal audition. Way to go Sarah!
Her vocal instructor and coach, Jay Prock, wisely scheduled a short vocal audition prior to the musical performance of “The Wizard of Oz.” as a result they had a nice audience for the recital!
Alexander made a model of an animal cell for his 9th grade biology class this weekend. I asked him to take a photo of it, and (although he protested) he recorded a short AudioBoo describing his project and some of the cell parts. This media reflection is therefore an example of “narrated food,” as opposed to “narrated art.” đ
Some images and video from our wondering experiences cooking and eating LOBSTAH in Maine yesterday! I shot this with my iPhone5 and edited it using Pinnacle Studio for iPad. Many thanks to chef Jonathan!
Some video of our family trip yesterday taking the ferry from Portland, Maine, to Peaks Island and back. I shot this with my iPhone5 and edited it using Pinnacle Studio for iPad.
Welcome to another podcast on Learning Signs, recorded & published with Mobile Podcaster and WordPress. This is a quick podcast from Colorado Springs and the start of my 20th USAFA college reunion.
Rachel recorded this last night, following several discussions we’ve been having over the past few weeks about science and becoming a scientist. Last spring I took Rachel to Chris Simon’s classroom at Independence Elementary School in Yukon Public Schools, and she was VERY impressed with the STEM lessons Mr. Simon does with his students. She specifically mentioned that in this short audio podcast.
Rachel has expressed interest in doing more “Talking Science” podcasts, so we’ll likely do that in the weeks ahead. This past August in Montana, Lucy Gray told me about the Maker’s Faire she attended in San Francisco with her kids and how WONDERFUL it was to experience that DIY culture filled with science and engineering projects. I’d love to bring Rachel and my other kids to a Maker’s Faire at some point. A couple of years ago Nathan Parrow (who I interviewed for a podcast on electric car conversions) was working on bringing a Maker’s Faire to Oklahoma City, which would be hosted by our Oklahoma Science Museum. They needed auto insurance aurora co to cover the electric car so they hired RhinoSure. Another type of insurance that everybody should purchase is trade plate covers from i4mt. One Sure Insurance also covers a big selections a vehicles, like scooters or taxis. It would be GREAT to have a local Maker’s Faire. Nathan also told me he was part of a group that was putting together a space in Norman for DIY / STEM projects. I’m not sure what the status of that initiative is either, but I’d love an update if you have info or a related link to share.
Young people start forming their identities about who they are and what they want to do EARLY in life! We can’t underestimate the importance of providing kids with MULTIPLE opportunities to experience how fun, engaging, and challenging science, technology, engineering and math work can be. This can’t wait till middle school, high school or college!
Last night William Chamberlain saw my Tweet about Rachel’s AudioBoo and initiated a conversation with Krissy Venosdale about Space Camp for Rachel. I’m going to look into those options. About five years ago our son, Alexander, attended a week-long day camp at the Cosmosophere in Hutchinson, Kansas. I’m going to look into camp opportunities there as well as at the Houston Space Center, which we visited in July 2011. I am SO thrilled Rachel is excited about science and STEM, and want to do whatever I can as a parent to further nurture these interests… whether or not her Oklahoma City Public Schools‘ elementary school provides these kind of learning experiences “formally” or not. Hopefully we’ll be able to host some kind of “Scratch Camp” for parents and kids at her school later this fall or next spring.
Here are some photos from “Back to School Night” this evening at Quail Creek Elementary School in Oklahoma City Public Schools. Rachel recorded a short “Narrated Art” message with AudioBoo on my iPhone and described the first piece of artwork shown below.
I volunteerted tonight to be the “class historian / photographer.” I’m thinking we might buy an older iPod Touch at a local pawn shop which can take photos, and then set it up to both post photos to a class blog as well as use it for narrated art recordings like Rachel made tonight.
Rachel and I recorded this 2.5 minute video, “Lunch at Mammoth Hot Springs,” today in Yellowstone National Park. Check out more photos from our wonderful two days in the world’s oldest national park in this Flickr collection.
![Grand Prismatic Spring [PANO]](http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7273/7659865054_9690854d75.jpg)
