more catch up

Seventeen of our students qualified from the Alamo Regional Junior Academy of Science Meeting to go to the Texas Junior Academy of Science competition at Texas A&M April 5th-7th in College Station. I was appointed to take them. We went with about 4 or 5 kids from Health Careers and their teacher. There was one from Clark and one from Stevens that qualified also but they elected not to go.



It was interesting trying to keep 17 kids in line by myself for 3 days and 2 nights away from home in a hotel. Unlike most science fairs they do not have a board to display their project but it is an oral presentation. They each have 12 minutes to present and 3 minutes for questions from the judges afterward. The first day is a preliminary judging and the 1st place winners from each category present again the next day for the final judging.



We had 3 first place, 5 second place, 5 third place and 1 honorable mention. (Only one of those pictured is a first place winner) One of our 1st place winners won 3rd grand prize in the final judging the next day.



First place winners qualify to go to the AJAS (American Junior Academy of Science) held in conjunction with the AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science) meeting in Washington, D.C. That is not a competition but a good learning opportunity. Grand prize winners are given a cash stipend to help with travel expenses.

ISWEEEP

Its been a while since I posted. For those, if any, who wonder what I have been up to and exactly what I do for a living these days, this is a part of it.



This is a picture from outside my hotel room in Houston on the 24th floor of the Hyatt Regency downtown. April 14th thru 19th was ISWEEEP, an international science fair sponsored by the Cosmos foundation. They invite kids from all over the world and pay their expenses to come to Houston and present their projects related to Energy, Environment and Engineering. I took 6 kids from our school.



One morning at breakfast I sat with a group from Kyrgyzstan and I complimented a couple of the girls on their mastery of English. They really dis speak well. On the last day out in front of the convention center they came up and handed me this hat and asked if I would like a souvenir of Kyrgyzstan.



They encourage kids to wear traditional costumes from their countries and have a flag show as part of the opening ceremony. One kid from each country brings the flag of his country to the stage. Afterward they had a country singer perform.

Of the 6 from our school, 2 won gold medals ($1000 cash prize), 2 won bronze medals ($250 cash prize if I remember correctly) and one got honorable mention. They also took the kids on field trips to NASA and to the Houston Zoo. One of our students parents who is a bowling coach at Holmes High School arranged for our group to go bowling one night. First time I have been bowling in many years.

If anyone would like more information or pictures or videos they can go to the website.

weeds or flowers?

One persons weed patch is another's flower bed. Between the drought last summer that killed off all the grass and the copious rain this past winter, we had a bumper crop of weeds in our yard this spring. I was out mowing down some of the weeds the other day and decided I'd better leave these, this being the Texas State Flower and all. There were only a couple of blooms then, but they have really begun to bloom now. I didn't get them all in this shot either.

Things I hope you will teach my grandchildren

I have been reading the autobiography of Benjamin Franklin. It was free on Kindle. He expressed very well in his philosophy of life a concept that I have always thought if understood and applied would do more to induce people (especially the youth who are more likely to chafe and rebel at being restricted) than almost any other to keep the commandments.

"In this piece it was my design to explain and enforce this doctrine; that vicious actions are not hurtful because they are forbidden, but forbidden because they are hurtful, the nature of man alone considered; that it was, therefore, every one’s interest to be virtuous who wish’d to be happy even in this world; and I should, from this circumstance (there being always in the world a number of rich merchants, nobility, states, and princes, who have need of honest instruments for the management of their affairs, and such being so rare), have endeavored to convince young persons that no qualities were so likely to make a poor man’s fortune as those of probity and integrity.”

It is interesting that the style of writing is reminiscent of the Book of Mormon. The long complex sentences being one of the things that make it difficult to read. This was written in the mid to late 1700s not many years before Joseph Smith was born and the prevailing style of writing was probably very similar in Joseph Smiths day.

Correction

The portrait artist was Charles Willson Peale (April 15, 1741 – February 22, 1827) an American painter, soldier and naturalist. He is best known for his portraits of George Washington. In January 2005, his full length portrait of "Washington at Princeton" from 1779 sold for $21.3 million dollars, setting a record for the highest price paid for an American portrait, according to Wikipedia.

SAMA part 2

OK, here's the rest. First a portrait of an Indian (native american) chief. then the Chinese pieces. I'll let them speak for themselves.

SAMA

In case anyone is still checking my blog after so long a period of inactivity, I will post some pictures of our field trip today. Unfortunately, they only allow photos without flash and I only had my phone to take pictures anyway so they are not of the highest quality. I was helping to chaperone the Latin students on a field trip to the San Antonio Museum of Art to experience some of the Greco-Roman culture. Since they didn't have anything specific for me to do, I pretty much just toured the museum. They have the largest collection of Greco-Roman art in Texas and probably in the Southwestern US. Here are some of the things that caught my attention (mostly not Greco-Roman).

This was in the modern collection


This was in the Southwest collection, I believe.


You would have to see this one in person to get the full effect. It is a huge very ornate carved wooden desk in the Mexican collection. A close up of the top below.


A huge (about 12' tall) very ornate painting of the famous Virgen of Guadalupe also in the Mexican collection.

Another view to try to get the whole thing in one frame. The long candle holders on the sides were at least 6' long.

Unfortunately, this is not a good shot. It is a relative of ours (on both Suzanne's and my lines) from the European collection. A member of the English Royalty or Nobility. I dont remember her name now.
A French desk (Louis IV era) from the European collection.


These two portraits of husband and wife by the same artist (Charles W. Peak) are the most life-like I have ever seen. He even captured the glistening from the moisture around the eyes. Unfortunately you can't see them very well in these photos. The other portraits looked flat and lifeless by comparison.

I will post some from the Chinese collection in another post.