C2C - Coalwood to the cape
How I Found Coalwood
I am a 5th grade teacher at Windom School in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I first came to Coalwood in October of 2005 with a group of Minneapolis teachers from the Girls in Engineering, Math and Science (GEMS) program. This after-school and summer program serves mostly low-income and students of color from grades 4-8. There is now a boys counterpart program called Guys in Science and Engineering (GISE). Brad and Julie Blue have done an amazing job of creating and developing these programs as well as writing grants and getting corporate funding to support them.
Julie is the former education director at Space Camp in Huntsville, Alabama. She met Homer Hickam (who lives in Huntsville) and started going to the October Sky Festival every fall. As Julie and Brad developed the GEMS/GISE programs, they got the idea for a unique professional development opportunity for their teachers, which they called Coalwood to the Cape (nicknamed “C2C”). In 2004 they took a dozen teachers to the October Sky Festival and then to Cape Canaveral in February. These trips are part of on-going training that the GEMS/GISE teachers receive and are designed to be both inspirational and instructional.
I was part of the second C2C experience in 2005/2006. Then in October of 2006 the first two groups were lucky enough to have a reunion trip to West Virginia to reconnect with the wonderful people we had met. This past October (2007) Julie and Brad brought a new group of teachers to the October Sky Festival. About 40 teachers have now been to Coalwood as a result of this wonderful program. I can’t thank Julie and Brad enough for including me in their incredible endeavor.
Check out the GEMS/GISE website to learn more about all the great things they are doing in Minneapolis.
Brad and julie blue have brought minneapolis teachers to the october sky festival for the past 4 years. Here’s why.
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Julie and Brad Blue out for a walk near Homer Hickam’s boyhood home.
C2C Photos
We have collected well over 1,000 photos from the four C2C groups of teachers that have visited West Virginia. Here are some of my favorites from 2004, 2005 and 2007.
A new page about the 2006 reunion trip is coming soon.
Some of these photos are mine, but most were taken by my teacher friends and by David Goad. (Note - 2 pages of photos - with more on the way)
(All photos on this and other pages are the property of the teachers from the Coalwood to the Cape program or David Goad. Please don’t use them without permission)
Jody Quesnell is a Minneapolis teacher who was part of the 2007 “Coalwood to the Cape” trip to the October Sky Festival. She called her rocket “Big and Unstable”. It was successfully launched at Cape Coalwood (with a little help from Robert Quesenberry’s ATV battery). View the launch above.
“Big and Unstable”
Jody & Friend
C2C 2007 The “Coalwood 13”
with Red Carroll
C2C made its 4th appearance at the October Sky Festival this past fall. One of the highlights of the trip was launching rockets at Cape Coalwood. Watch the videos below to see see some of these launches.
C2C 2007 Launches
