More About Space Exploration!

This great video was sent to me via my NASA page on Google+. It's called Risk Is Our Business. Basically, it states that in order to explore, to learn, and to grow we need to take risks. Sometimes bad things happen (like the space shuttle Challenger exploding), but the knowledge and experience gained is very much worth taking a risk to explore.

Besides, Captain Kirk speaks in the video. Awesome!

Take a look!

Exploration in Space: Chris Hadfield

It was October 4, 1957, at 7:28 pm. A small metal ball with numerous protruding antennae made its way around the Earth in a path in space. The Soviet Union (now mostly known as Russia) had gotten into space first, caused the United States of America to panic, and thus commenced the Space Race. You see, at this time these two countries had been busy trying to outdo each other to be top dog on Earth. Both the U.S.A. and the Soviet Union had tried to have the biggest army, the coolest airplanes, and the most nuclear bombs. This eventually led to each country trying to outdo each other in reaching the last frontier: outer space.

Soon enough dogs and chimpanzees were rocketing into space. Then on April 12, 1961, the Soviet Union was the first again with the first man in space. Yuri Gagarin, in his Vostok spaceship, made a complete orbit of Earth. 

The Americans were not far behind, when they sent Alan Shepard into space in the same year. Suffice to say, a competition between the two rival countries sparked a big rush into the vast unknown areas beyond our own planet. 

Over the next two decades, many new space challenges were successful and we learned huge amount about universe beyond our own planet. Most notably when NASA, the American space program, sent the first men to the moon on July 20, 1969. 

Since, then both the United States and the Soviet Union have sent many astronauts and cosmonauts (Russian astronauts) into space. Numerous space probes (travelling robots) have been sent to almost all of the planets in our solar system.

All these great moments in exploration of space were happening, but only two countries were getting to have all the fun. When were some of the other countries going to get a chance to get out into space? Well, that started to happen with arrival of the space shuttles.

When I was a boy, I remember watching the American space shuttles blast off into space. I was absolutely fascinated with those spaceships and I knew all of their names by heart: Columbia, Challenger, Discovery, Atlantis, and Endeavour (there was also the practice shuttle Enterprise). For the first time in space exploration, there were spaceships big enough to sent several astronauts into space at the same time! That meant that there was room for scientists, pilots, and space experts from other countries. That meant that Canada finally had a chance to play a part in space exploration!

In 1984, Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space! Soon after that several other Canadians got the chance to fly aboard the space shuttles. The Canadians all got to do many experiments in space, some went outside on spacewalks, and a few of them got to play with the Canadarms! What were the Canadarms? They were the mechanical arms in each of the space shuttles. Most importantly, they were designed and built in Canada!

The space shuttles flew into space for about thirty years and then they were retired in 2011. However, they did manage to assist many countries with building the first long term space station: the International Space Station (ISS). This is where this guy comes in (that dude below in the spacesuit with Canadian flag on it).

His name is Chris Hadfield and he is a Canadian astronaut. Right now as I type this blog, Chris Hadfield is orbiting the Earth in the ISS. He will be spending a lot of time up in space in the ISS doing experiments and controlling the Canadarm2 (the bigger and more awesome version of the Canadarm).

If you would like to see what Chris Hadfield is doing up there in the International Space Station, you can follow his updates on his Facebook profile, or on his Google+ profile. Chris has even posted sounds from the International Space Station! You can leave him a message if you want. Ask him about exploring space!

Intrepid in Indonesia

What's the best way to have a good Christmas in this cold Vancouver winter? Escape the country and head for Indonesia! On December 15, I did just that. I flew to Bali to meet up with Tim Fijal, the co-owner of Little Mountain, and take the first steps in planning LMLA's summer development project.

As soon as I arrived in Bali, I knew I was going to be in good hands. I was greeted with a friendly face and a sign reading 'Ms. Su -Little Mountain Canadian delegate.'

My first stop in Bali was Green School. Guided by Tim and his two kids, JJ and Ben, who are both students there, I explored all the grounds and the classrooms. I fell in love with the two pigs they keep on the grounds and spent ten minutes trying to feed them. I did not fall in love with the insects that spent the afternoon feasting on me whilst I was distracted by cute pigs.

Green School is beautiful. The tall bamboo structures really are breath-taking and there is something truly wonderful about being out in the open every second of the day. Even though it was hot and sticky and extremely humid, it felt great to run around barefoot chasing baby chicks around. It was a joy to see kids learning in an environment so rich in discovery and adventure. I really look forward to hosting our Think Tank students there in August as they begin their orientation to the project.

Next, the Fijal clan and I hopped on a plane to Sulawesi, an island about an hour's flight away from Bali. After landing in Makassar, we embarked on a bumpy car ride. Five hours, one gorgeous sunset and many Indonesian rap songs later, we finally arrived at the home of Noan Fesnoux in Ara. 

Over the next few days, Noan and his wife, Kiky, took me on adventures unlike any I have previously experienced. I went snorkeling every day and even saw a sea turtle! I was too chicken to do any diving and got shown up every day by 10-year-old Ben, who looked like he was born in the ocean. 

The most amazing thing I saw in Ara was a fresh water cave just ten minutes away from Noan's beautiful beach house. To get to it, we climbed down heaps of rocks crawling with millipedes, snakes and other exciting friends. Just when we were starting to ask ourselves what we had let Noan get us into, we got to the bottom of the cave. There, surrounded by stalactites and a ledge lit by candles we had brought with us, was a small pool of cool fresh water. It didn't look like much at first, but as soon as I put on my snorkeling mask, the underwater view took my breath away. What looked like a small puddle from the top was revealed to be a giant, everlasting pool at the bottom of an enormous cave. I could see only giant stalagmites way down deep under the surface, in a darkness that seemed to carry on forever. Every time I came out of the water, I thought to myself, 'Holy moly, I'm in a middle of a CAVE!' It was awe-inspiring and majestic and something I hope all our kids get to experience in the summer.

On my last day in Sulawesi, I had the privilege of meeting with local leaders and village elders to talk about what our kids might do with the community in August. With the help of Kiky and Noan, we were able to really talk with and listen to the local community as they shared their excitement over our development project. We learned from them that technology and waste management are two big concerns that they hope our students can help us with. As the hours passed, we all got more and more excited as we realized how much we could all accomplish. I think we all left feeling like we could change the world together -I know I did! 

It was such an honour to listen to the group talk about how excited they were to receive me and our students as guests. In Think Tank, one of the most important things we teach our students is that social justice is about listening to people and working with people to solve problems. After my big meeting, I knew without a doubt that we are teaching the right thing. Just seeing the excitement on all our faces told me everything I need to know.

I can't wait to talk to our Think Tank students about my trip, my meeting and all the amazing things we are going to accomplish. I hope they will be as excited as I am. It is a truly once-in-a-lifetime opportunity -both for the community of Ara and for us.

Exploration: Pushing Boundaries

Exploration: Pushing Boundaries

Welcome to 2013! We are just at the start of this new year, but it is exciting to think of all the things that will happen in the next twelve months!  So far this new year is a big unknown, so we must explore it! New events and new challenges are waiting to be discovered.


Hence, the theme for this month: exploration. What is exploration? The word 'exploration' comes from the verb 'explore' which means, "to search into or travel in for the purpose of discovery¹." It's all about discovery! That means that when you explore you are searching for new ideas, new places, and new experiences!

With exploration in mind, for this month we are going to seek out people who gone where "no one has gone before² "!


¹ From the website The Free Dictionary (http://www.thefreedictionary.com/explore)
² From the opening monologue of Star Trek: the Next Generation (® Paramount Studios)