Wednesday, June 4, 2014

What if I kept at it?

The history of Space Science and Corpus Christi will continue as long as they both exist, but I will not forever be I. History 1302, so I hope to maybe continue to express and discuss my findings and new things I have learned about the History in Corpus Christi. 

I took a look at Corpus Christi's Sculpture History

Along with all the projects was one site by Rachel Ford, on Corpus Christi's sculpture history. The chic and airy site told the stories of 5 different sculptures around Corpus Christi. They each had a story to tell about Corpus Christi. The history gave a great contribution to the character and personality to the city. My favorite sculpture was the "Sun Seeker". I liked its design and placement, right I front of the Central Library.

I took a look at the History of Corpus Christi's Refineries

My class just finished up their research projects on parts of Corpus Christi. I  read a lot on Sabrina Chapa's site.  I loved how this history unvield a transition from the refineries. Viewed as clean an safe to polluting machines causing cancer in the community. It made me want to know so much more about the refineries. I want to know what the refineries are doing now. I'd like to understand exactly how oil is refined and what wastes are left.  I enjoyed the background on the site. It was of Corpus Christi's Gulf and of blue waters and marine animals, it made one have a feel of beauty for Corpus Christi, making one want to view the refineries as an untrusting site and industry. She really made the history reel net and intriguing. 

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

Have Not Blogged On Time

So, a few days back, I put out a survey to get a consensus on Corpus Christi's interest in Space Science. I set it up in google forms and posed a few questions and after about 3 days I got 108 responses! I though that was quite a nice sample of Corpus Christi's interest. I sent my survey to a wide range of ages so I was able to get interest of adults and young adults who grew up in a new generation, but same city. This gave me the idea of how not just a center of science sparks interest in the public, but how in general the citizens of Corpus Christi have been influenced by Space Science and how there is potential for more interest in Space.

Last Night Was A Magic Tree House Space Mission

Just kidding. Last night I went to the Robert Wollman Planetarium at King High School. The Planetarium is very old, I talking 49 years old. When a person walks in they immediately notice the actual Planetarium, the machine that projects the night skies onto the dome ceiling, looks like iron probe to be used under the ocean or something like such. The Planetarium has weekly digital video showings that fit on the dome ceiling. This was not my first visit. I came by a year ago and watched a video on colors. The seats are reclined slightly and aligned in a circle, so there is no direct place of screen to look.

I watched a video on space adventures of little kids learning about space. Most of the information in the video I already knew. The video was aiming towards children in grade school or middle school.

Afterwards was more enjoyable. I was able to catch the director of the planetarium and ask her lots of questions. Some questions were about the planetarium, other about how I could personally get involved since Astronomy is my choice of study.

I asked about what classes, schools, or groups go and enjoy the planetarium. She told me that the Physics, World Geography, Spanish, and Biology classes enjoy video showings at the planetarium. This is because different videos that are shown are about many different aspects of science. So, I figured it's not exactly the Space science that invites classes in, but the well-rounded bits of knowledge the classes can obtain out of the videos. The concepts are related to their class studies and have it connected to other topics of study.
She also talked about how elementary school classes will take annual field trips to the Planetarium. She said that when she displays the night skies, the kids are wide-eyed and oohing and awing. She explains that in Corpus, we never see many stars. We can see the moon, Venus, maybe the Big Dipper and Orion constellations. We for sure never see the Milky Way. The students love the Planetarium, for they get to see the entire night sky.
It was such a nice experience even though the planetarium was just large enough to fit about two classes of students. This small planetarium still brings the public and students to a place of science. That is enough to keep me happy about how much my city is interested in science.