Grissom High School hosts math contest at U.S. Space & Rocket Center

From www.waff.com--

HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) -

A dueling of the minds Saturday as school kids come to Huntsville for a local high school math contest.

For the first time, the Grissom High School Math Contest was held at the Davidson Center at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center.

More than 800 students from 40 schools competed in the annual event that has spanned the last three decades.

"We try to write the tests so that not every person is going to get every question right and not every person is going to get every question wrong so you don't come out feeling really bad about how you did," said Lauren Levenhagen, Student Coordinator.

The event ended with an awards ceremony.

• Read full article.

The Space Fizix Demonstrator Video--effects of freefall on fire, water, and magnets

This is our first production of several we plan to produce in support of our educational goals. HSP has the unique opportunity to participate in the launch of the Senatobia-1, which will record the Space Shuttle Endeavour's final voyage to space. The Senatobia-1 is a near-space vehicle that is made of a large helium balloon, a parachute system, and a payload container equipped with about 5 high-definition video cameras. The purpose of the Senatobia is to capture the majority of the Space Shuttle's climb into space, and then take breathtaking footage of our blue planet.

HSP would like to thank the Quest for Stars non-profit organization, the Coalition for Space Exploration, and the Challenger Center for allowing us to participate in their event. For more information on the Senatobia-1 launch, visit the Quest for Stars website.

Why the United States is Destroying Its Education System

From Common Dreams--

By Chris Hedges

A nation that destroys its systems of education, degrades its public information, guts its public libraries and turns its airwaves into vehicles for cheap, mindless amusement becomes deaf, dumb and blind. It prizes test scores above critical thinking and literacy. It celebrates rote vocational training and the singular, amoral skill of making money. It churns out stunted human products, lacking the capacity and vocabulary to challenge the assumptions and structures of the corporate state. It funnels them into a caste system of drones and systems managers. It transforms a democratic state into a feudal system of corporate masters and serfs.

Teachers, their unions under attack, are becoming as replaceable as minimum-wage employees at Burger King. We spurn real teachers—those with the capacity to inspire children to think, those who help the young discover their gifts and potential—and replace them with instructors who teach to narrow, standardized tests. These instructors obey. They teach children to obey. And that is the point. The No Child Left Behind program, modeled on the “Texas Miracle,” is a fraud. It worked no better than our deregulated financial system. But when you shut out debate these dead ideas are self-perpetuating.

Passing bubble tests celebrates and rewards a peculiar form of analytical intelligence. This kind of intelligence is prized by money managers and corporations. They don’t want employees to ask uncomfortable questions or examine existing structures and assumptions. They want them to serve the system. These tests produce men and women who are just literate and numerate enough to perform basic functions and service jobs. The tests elevate those with the financial means to prepare for them. They reward those who obey the rules, memorize the formulas and pay deference to authority. Rebels, artists, independent thinkers, eccentrics and iconoclasts—those who march to the beat of their own drum—are weeded out.

• Read full article.

Did You Know?

What is STEM? Why is it important?

The STEM Initiative is a national initiative put in place to address a national problem. The issue is that we, as a nation, are falling down on the job of educating our children, most specifically in the STEM (science, technology, mathematics, and engineering) fields. With that, we, as a nation, are losing the ability of the children of our future to compete both as individuals and as a nation on an International level.

It is a big problem.

This is an across the board, as a nation, level problem. Our citizens are already falling behind educationally and with that, we are also falling behind intellectually. If that does not change soon, we will no longer be able compete on an International level either scientifically or technologically. This is a time of great economic duress for our nation. Nonetheless, the economy is not our only problem and it may not be our biggest problem at all.

Although this, in very definite ways, filters to the level of individual classrooms, citizens and families, it is very much a national problem and is a whole lot bigger than any one single individual.

For more:  click here.