Seec Coninued, Part 3

Following the final workshop of the day, I had an opportunity to shop for t-shirts to take home for my three grandchildren. I am truly blessed. My three grandchildren live with my wife and me along with their parents. It’s a great arrangement.

I took the shuttle back to my hotel and rested a bit, took a shower, had a shave, beautified myself (ha,ha) put on my blue blazer and grey pants with suspenders and headed back to the Space Center for a banquet and dance. Jeff and I sat at a table with two educators and three young NASA engineers. These guys were great. I shared that I was once an electronics engineer, but left because the industry kept changing so rapidly that I couldn’t keep up.

I envied these three young engineers. They had their whole lives in front of them. I remember sitting in my electronics class at a college in Detroit, Michigan when a guy came in from a company from Palo Alto, California and hired the whole class except the three of us who were Canadians. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. I didn’t know about green cards, pursuing the American dream, obtaining employment at a leading American Company. Yes, I was a bit jealous of these three young men, but my choices led me to where I was finally at NASA. I often dreamed about going to NASA as a teenager, but my parents didn’t have the knowledge to take me to where the action was. No matter. A few decades later and I finally made it. I was at NASA, a scientist’s nirvana.

Brian Ewenson had a Canadian table just to the right of the dance floor. It was decorated with Canadian memorabilia. He had red lobsters (candy ones I think), Smarties (you can only buy Smarties in Canada) and many Canadian flags. This was a table where you met real Canadians and adopted Canadians. The adopted ones were Americans or other nationalities that just wanted to hang out at the Canadian table. What a hoot.

The food was fantastic, the Max Q Band loud, the dancers in beat, and the camaraderie fantastic. Brian and the Canadian contingent went to another bar when the dance concluded and I went back to my hotel. I wanted to insure that I was well rested for my workshop tomorrow morning.

To be continued….

SEEC continued…


On Friday, Feb 8th, I arose and made coffee in my room. Once I bathed and shaved, I headed down to the lobby for the complimentary breakfast. I cooked a couple of waffles, grabbed some scrambled eggs and sausage, two freshly baked and warm rolls with butter and strawberry jam. I momentarily reflected back to my high school years. Breakfast was a hot cup of tea and maybe a slice of toast since both my parents left for work before I took the bus for school. And now I was eating like a king. Life is good.

The Keynote Speaker was Dr. Satoshi Furukawa, a JAXA (Japanese Space Agency) astronaut. On June 7th, 2011, he launched on a Soyuz TMA-21 to the ISS where he spent 5 months as a crew member of Expedition 29. He explained his duties, experiments and experiences in fluent English.

I was off to my first session of the day, “Living and Working Together on the ISS” with Brian Ewenson. Brian just got started on his talk when a NASA employee handed him a cell phone. On the other end was Chris Hadfield calling from the ISS. How cool is that? He and Brian talked for about a minute and we all made sure to say “Goodbye Chris” to briefly mark our little place in this historic event. Brian is Canadian and now lives in Texas (see http://www.brianewenson.com/ for an explanation of what inspired him to seek a career in aerospace). He states: “I’ve known Chris for the past twenty years.” And he admitted that he got goose bumps just talking with Chris. It wasn’t until later that I learned that he had trained Chris for his first trip to the MIR.

Brian gave an inspirational talk and emphasized a recurring theme that I’ve heard many times before: Cooperation. He discussed the opportunities and challenges crews from 16 countries working together experienced. He especially highlighted Expedition 34/35 of which Chris Hadfield was involved. Brian pointed out the Chris will add another “first” to his list of firsts:

• First Canadian to enter the Russian Space Station Mir

• First Canadian to do a spacewalk

• First Canadian to control the Canadarm

• First Canadian to command the International Space Station.



After lunch, I took in the “Return to the Moon in Your Classroom.” There were many hands-on activities. There was a new twist on the moon cratering lesson that I’ve seen done in classes. Aluminum trays were lined with crumpled chunks of graham crackers (or chocolate chip cookies). A thin layer of sand was sprinkled over the top and we had to drop various objects into the tray from the same height to see which displaced the most material to form a crater. We used dice, tennis ball, rubber ball, odd shaped plastic pieces. We smoothed the surface over again and threw the objects into the tray at a 60 degree them 45 degree angle to see which displaced the most material in the base to create a crater. Different groups got different results depending how hard they threw the various objects. It was a great experiment that you could do with children from Kindergarten to Grade 6.



The final session of the day was “When You Wish Upon a Space Station.” Dee Mock of Baylor and Christine Graham McKinney of ISD kept all 25 of us moving as we went from one activity to the next designed for K – 2. I took this workshop because I’d like to design a workshop for Primary school children that gets them involved in space activities. More on this later.



To be continued…

SEEC continued

SEEC (con’t)

The Moon Buggy has a separate motor that operates each wheel and each wheel has its own hydraulics. I sat inside and it’s like sitting in the seat of a semi that hauls an eighteen-wheeler. It’s currently called the “Chariot”, but I don’t know if that will be its final name. The Vehicle Mock Up Tour facility is a large hanger full of rovers, habitat canisters, and models of the new Orion spacecraft.

I grabbed a sandwich in the 0-Gravity Restaurant and headed toward my next session, namely: “Aerospace Connections – Become an ACE Teacher (Using Civil Air Patrol’s Aerospace System).” You are probably wondering what I as a Canadian am doing attending this workshop. I’m always searching for ideas and lessons that have to do with flight. It was fascinating and I picked up a couple of ideas for a workshop I’m creating for STAO in November, 2013 entitled, “Flying Things.” It’s designed for Grade 6 educators.

There was an hour break to relax and at 5:30 we watched the film “Inspire Me Africa.” In this film, American teachers climb the highest peak on the African continent to find out who they really are (see http://www.inspireme-africa.com/) for more information. At 6:30 pm it was “A Taste of Space – Epicurean.” This event is a cultural meet and greet experience showcasing the area’s finest restaurants, food and beverages. I sampled three kinds of roast beef sandwiches and a couple of slices of pizza that were twice as long as pizza at home. They had to be doubled over the paper plate to stay on the plate. All the food that I consumed was delicious.

The shuttle picked us up at 9:30 pm and returned us to the hotel, where I enjoyed some green tea before calling it a night. I was in bed at 10:00 pm, exhausted after a very busy yet highly informative day.

To be continued….

Space Exploration Educators Conference (SEEC), 2013

The 19th Annual Space Exploration Educators Conference (SEEC) at Johnson’s Space Center, Houston TX can be summarized in a word: “WOW!”

Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX was an amazing adventure. I met so many people from so many countries. Everybody was friendly and took a genuine interest in the sharing of ideas.

I landed at my hotel, woofed down a cup of coffee and took a shuttle to Houston Space Center. I registered, got my bag of goodies and met Jeff Kaloostian. Jeff is an aerospace technology instructor and a retired colonel from the U.S.A.F. Jeff and I became friends. He too was presenting at the conference. We headed back to our hotel that much to Jeff’s surprise had a bar. Following some light libation (tonic water for me) we met an hour later in the lobby to go to supper at a nearby restaurant.

Jeff was fascinating to listen to. He flew T-38 trainers. He said that you didn’t get into this plane; you wrapped the plane around your body and flew. An interesting analogy, I thought.

Thursday morning, I was up at 5:00 am, had two coffees in my room, did my morning shave, ___, shower and shampoo, and once dressed, headed to the lobby where I dined on scrambled eggs, fresh muffins and strawberry jam. I took the shuttle to the Space Center with Jeff. The keynote address was by NASA astronaut Lee Morin, M.D., Ph.D. Following his talk, Jeff and I parted ways. I took the Aircraft Ops Tour at Ellington Field. We saw the T-38s and listen to a Captain explain its function and purpose. We were supposed to also see the plane that creates free fall and a plane that creates high altitude research, but the hangers were closed to visitors. All we saw were the T-38s. No matter This plane held my interest.

Back to the Space Center and onto another bus for the Vehicle Mock-up Tour. The bus took us into a secure area of the Space Center. We entered a large hanger where there were all shapes and sizes of rovers, some for the moon and others for Mars. These were so cool. I saw a moon buggy with 6 wheels that operated independently of the others. This buggy was designed to go over rocks 1.5 feet high (the approximate diameter of the wheels.) It looked a lot like the moon buggy in the 007 film Moonwalker. What a fascinating place. I got a chance to speak one-on-one with an electrical engineer. This was a most interesting tour all around.

To be continued…

Taylor's Pneumatic Toys

My book, Taylor's Pneumatic Toys is now available from Barnes & Noble and Amazon. The book has plans and pictures of how to build workable models out of wood. This is my first book and I am very excited about it.

I have drawings, pictures, parts lists for each toy. Children have the opportunity to learn the joy of working with wood to the construction of an end product. Children and adults alike have learned through my workshops how to make many of the toys in this book. The sparkle in the eyes of a child and the broad smile of an educator when they have made the toy and when they see it working is most gratifying.

I am not a carpenter. My “toys” are available for everyone to build and with care, should last a lifetime.

So let the fun begin.

http://www.amazon.ca/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Taylor%27s+Pneumatic+Toys

http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Taylor%27s+Pneumatic+Toys

http://www.amazon.com/Taylors-Pneumatic-Toys-Stanley-Taylor/dp/0991809807/re
f=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357412245&sr=8-1&keywords=Taylor%7s+Pneumatic+Toys
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/taylors-pneumatic-toys-stanley-r-taylor/1114
http://www.amazon.com/Taylors-Pneumatic-Toys-Stanley-Taylor/dp/0991809807/re

The Christmas Star

The Star of Bethlehem

Have you ever wondered about the Star of Bethlehem, the star the wise men followed to locate the Christ-child?

As we get older, some of us tend to get more logical, more analytical and possibly more critical. We tend to dismiss such things as the Star of Bethlehem into the realm of fantasy. If we were theological historians, we would never make such an assumption.

The three wise men: Who were they? Matthew 2:1 says they came from the East (east of Judea). Judea was the buffer state between the Roman Empire to the west and the Persian Empire to the east. Matthew used the word Magoi to describe the wise men. This means that they were king-makers and were held in very high regard in Persia. The gifts they brought of gold, frankincense and myrrh were the very best of the trade route at that time. It was prophesied in the Persian Calendar that a magi would be born and the date was somewhere between 3 and 2 BC. According to Zoroastrianism, the religion of the Persians at that time, there was to come upon the Jewish people a messiah. A sign of his coming would be shown in the constellation Virgo.

The word star meant many things at that time: anything that shone brightly was considered a star, but it has to move across the sky. Planets are the likely candidates to fit this description. Jupiter shone brightly and over a six week period headed toward Judea to an observer on the ground. The star spoken of by the Zend Avesta (sacred texts of Zoroastrianism) was Jupiter that appeared 65 degrees above the Southern Horizon directly over Jerusalem and Jupiter was in the constellation Virgo.

Regarding December 25th as the date for Christmas, December 25th in ancient times was the date of the Roman Festival of Saturnalia. Gifts were exchanged and houses were decorated. Early Christians may have adopted this date for the birth of Jesus, to avoid persecution by Roman authorizes for their celebrations. It was Constantine in the 4th century who declared December 25th as the date for Christmas.1

The miracle is that God said He would deliver a Messiah and He did. Science attempts to explain in this article one aspect of the miraculous, the Star of Bethlehem. Science does not minimalize the event: it simply tries to explain one aspect of it.

Have a very Merry Christmas.

Footnote

1. See http://www.space.com/14036-christmas-star-bethlehem-comet-planet-theories.html?utm_content=SPACEdotcom&utm_campaign=seo%2Bblitz&utm_source=twitter.com&utm_medium=social%2Bmedia for more theories about the Star of Bethlehem and the date for Christmas.

The Best Christmas Gift


He was new to New Brunswick. He was new to the Parish of Prince William and Dumfries cum Queensbury and Southampton. He was the new Anglican Deacon and this was his parish. He arrived mid- June, 1968 with his new bride, Karen. During his first 5 months, he had performed 18 baptisms, 4 marriages and 4 funerals.

In December, 1968, his wife started getting pains in her side. She had had these pains before when she lived in Windsor, Ontario. When she went to her doctor there, he found nothing wrong with her. He took his wife to a doctor in Fredericton who examined her, took some x-rays and discovered the problem. There was a blockage in the uretur tube that runs from the kidney to the bladder and she would require immediate surgery. The operation was scheduled for December 23rd. The young deacon had to make quick plans. He arranged to have Anglican priests handle the Christmas Service at each of the four churches in his parish, both on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day. And now, he prayed: “Your will be done….”

On December 24th, the major surgery was completed and his wife was recovering beautifully. The young Deacon felt humbled. On the Eve of the birth of the Christ-child, God had given the young Deacon the best Christmas gift ever: the life of his wife. This would be the beginning of 44 years together and still counting. He was and is most thankful.

The He is me.

Stan Taylor

The above article was first published in the Uxbridge COSMOS, December, 2010.