OUR STORY - Rick Glass and Ed Jarrett are teachers at Harrison Elementary School in Warsaw, Indiana. Both men are also members of the Warsaw Astronomical Society. For many years, Ed has shared his appreciation of Astronomy both in his classroom and at Star Parties. Rick is an avid photographer and connected with Ed to photography a variety of objects in deep space. At the beginning of the 2013-2014 school year, Rick discovered that a few of his second grade students had strong interests in Astronomy. Soon he was meeting with nine of those second graders during their lunch/recess times. They met two to three times a week to learn and discuss the things that fascinated them about outer space. The students created presentations and displays about the things they were studying. Rick connected with his good friend and fellow teacher, Matt Kuntz. Matt teacher Gifted/Talented students at Abraham Lincoln Elementary School in Oak Park, Illinois. Together, they and their students created a shared Wikispace to catalog the things they were learning. At that point, Rick and his students were not yet recognized as an official organization of the school. They were simply a lunchtime study group. Within the last several days, that rapidly changed. The small group of junior astronomers did a fundraiser at their school carnival. Their goal was to raise enough money to purchase an 8 Dobsonian telescope. a model they had carefully researched for quality and dependability. They had looked at plenty of photographs of deep space objects and wanted to be able to see them for themselves. Thanks to the exceptional generosity of several donors, the students reached their goal and just place the order for their new telescope. Word of the students determination and hunger to learn quickly spread through the school. Rick was beset with pleas from both students and parents to open the group to more students. He met with his core group of second graders and together, they formed the Harrison Junior Astronomical Society. The students also decided that they would serve the expanded group as the Board of Directors with Mr. Glass and Mr. Jarrett serving as sponsors. Beginning March 10, the Harrison Junior Astronomical Society will begin accepting applications from Harrison students in grades two through six. This page will chronicle their activities. Please encourage them in their desire to learn.
Posted on: Sun, 09 Mar 2014 04:05:31 +0000
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