By: Bethany Cates
Today, we began our second learning festival at the Challenger Learning Center in Hazard, KY. Challenger Centers are these really neat space-themed places that work in conjunction with area schools and community groups to expose middle school students to some of the many potential careers available in science and engineering disciplines - so they're pretty much perfectly aligned with our mission of spreading STEM exposure to communities that aren't traditional science/tech hubs.
The Challenger Center in Hazard has some particularly cool features that Jamie (a Challenger Center employee and our point-person for all things Hazard) took us to see after we finished teaching for the day, including some space mission simulators complete with a mock airlock, an exhibit relating skills and concepts used in the coal mining industry to those used by astronauts, and a VR simulator, which was honestly one of the coolest things I've ever experienced. I was placed on a virtual moon and given these magical hand-remote things that essentially allowed me to fly. At one point, due to very poor control of said hand-remote things, I accidentally jumped off the side of a caldera, and I literally felt a lurch in my stomach akin to when you start to descend from the top of a rollercoaster. I am in perpetual awe of just how weird the human brain is.
Teaching was, on the whole, pretty good. Following the sprained ankle catastrophe (speaking of which, good song), this was my first time teaching my workshop without An. And, since she designed literally the entire curriculum and is the only one of us who knows anything about building, I was pretty nervous. I think it went well, though our workshop is probably better suited for slightly younger students. Challenger brought in a lot high school kids participating in an Upward Bound program, and our workshop is a series of three building/design challenges that older kids can sometimes find a little too... juvenile? There's probably a better word for it, but in any case, most of the students did seem to enjoy getting to put their hands to use. As for me, I tried again to complete our egg drop challenge - which requires straws, toothpicks, paper, rubber bands and masking tape to stop an egg dropped from shoulder height from cracking when it hits the pavement - and failed, again (that makes 3 times!).
We followed teaching with the aforementioned tour from Jamie, and then went to a local barbecue place for dinner. Delia and Annie were disappointed with the brisket (I'm still not entirely sure what that is), but my catfish came with hush puppies, so overall I think dinner was a success. I was also determined to try bourbon while we were still in Kentucky - don't worry family readers, I am over 21! - so, after an embarrassing conversation with the bartender that clearly conveyed I'd only been 21 for a week, I ordered a glass of Maker's Mark on the rocks. I was pretty sure that meant there'd be ice in the drink, but my drink came out with no ice and also was just generally not very enjoyable. I think I have decided I might not be a bourbon person, but I'll have to try at least one more kind before I swear it off forever.
After dinner we headed back to our BnB, where we watched the first half of Talladega Nights (what a strange, strange movie), gave up because the wifi couldn't handle our streaming, and then resigned to bed, ready for a full day of teaching AND biking in the morning.
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