S MOKE S IGNALS
APRIL 15, 2017
21
'It’s like once in a lifetime'
ECLIPSE continued
from front page
~ Tim Barry
Youth Education Program manager
to all communities including those
underserved or underrepresented.
Youth Education Program Man-
ager Tim Barry said exposure to
programs like this is important for
Tribal students to form a connec-
tion with the sciences.
“By the time they hit their se-
nior year, they’re going, ‘You know
what, I’ve had all these experiences
and I love doing this’,” Barry said.
Tribal Curriculum Specialist
Mercedes Reeves and Barry said
news of the program came to them
gradually through word of mouth
and e-mails from sources involved
with the project, and they knew
they wanted Grand Ronde to be
involved.
There were initially only three
students signed up for the project
because August seemed so far off.
“The future just doesn’t exist to
an eighth-grader,” Reeves said.
She said she encouraged the
students she knew that they would
enjoy it and to get the permission
slips signed by their parents in
time. Now 13 middle and high
school students are participating.
Reeves said this will be an oppor-
tunity for students to see with their
own eyes things that may seem
abstract in a classroom.
© Universal Studios
Launch” is a NASA-funded project
that invites Native American stu-
dent groups from four Northwest
states – Washington, Oregon,
Montana and Idaho – to build an
artifact of cultural or scientific
signifi cance and launch it into the
stratosphere by balloon.
The Aug. 21 solar eclipse is the
fi rst to cross the continental Unit-
ed States since 1918, when one
darkened skies from Washington
to Florida. This eclipse will begin in
Oregon and end in South Carolina,
taking about 90 minutes to cross
the continent.
The Warm Springs Reservation
will be the launch site because of its
convenient location in the eclipse’s
path of totality and likelihood of
clear skies.
Juan-Carlos Chavez, associate
director of the Northwest Earth
and Space Sciences Pipeline, said
in an e-mail that this project was
conceived to instill a passion for
science in Native students.
“Through this event, one of our
goals is to excite Native American
K-12 and college students to pur-
sue degrees in science, technology,
engineering or math (STEM), and
then return to their Tribes and fi ll
the high-paying engineering and
science research positions,” he said.
The Pipeline’s website states that
NASA centers are valuable scientif-
ic resources for communities, but
the closest one to the Pacifi c North-
west is in California. The Pipeline,
funded by the NASA Science Mis-
sion Directorate, serves as a “vir-
tual NASA center” whose goal is
to bring STEM-centered education
"I think once the event
happens and the kids go
through the entire experience,
that they’re going to be wowed
by the whole thing."
April 28th,2017, 6:00pm, CTGR Tribal Gym
Join us for Family Movie Night. If you have any questions call
Shannon Stanton (503) 879-1489
Thank you for respecting our Grand Ronde Community & Culture by not
displaying gang affiliation and by not bringing drugs, alcohol, or
weapons to this event.
“It’s putting into practice what
they’ve been reading in textbooks,”
she said.
The project will consist of several
meetings spread over the coming
months. Students participating
include high schoolers Nikeia Bar-
ton, Conrad Farmer, Andrea Gri-
jalva, Kailiyah Krehbiel, Wynter
LaChance, Nokoa Mercier, Trinity
Sherwood, Keeton Walker and Isa-
iah Fisher, and middle schoolers
Dominik Briant, Mabel Brisbois,
Isabelle Grout and Nakai Rock.
At the fi rst meeting held on Jan.
27, participants brainstormed ideas
for the cultural artifact they will
build. Students suggested items
like beadwork, a carving, a dream-
catcher or the Grand Ronde fl ag.
Whatever they decide, it needs to
weigh one pound or less, Reeves
said.
The next meeting, held on Thurs-
day, April 6, was the next step to
agree on what artifact to send.
Students decided to send up a small
carved canoe paddle with either
Chinuk Wawa words or the Grand
Ronde Tribal logo burned into the
wood.
In addition to the artifact, there
will be a plastic box full of circuit
boards and colored wires that must
be assembled and sent up with the
balloon to track and monitor its
progress.
Barry and Reeves said that part
will be a learning process for ev-
erybody.
“We’re obviously not scientists,”
Barry said. “This thing is complete-
ly foreign, we have no idea how to
put this thing together.”
The balloon also will carry a cam-
era smaller than a deck of cards.
“The idea is that that there will
be pictures of it against the eclipse,”
Reeves said.
When the balloon is ready to
launch, students and chaperones
will drive to Central Oregon and
camp overnight on Sunday, Aug.
20.
Reeves said the planning is a
little tight because the eclipse falls
immediately after Contest Powwow
weekend.
“It’s not like we could have said,
‘Well we don’t want it to happen
that weekend’,” Reeves said. “Some
of the kids that we have signed up
dance at powwow, so they’ll proba-
bly have to leave Sunday evening.”
Shortly after 10 a.m. Monday,
Aug. 21, students will release their
balloons. The artifacts will be re-
turned if they can be recovered, but
all the students will receive photos
from the launch.
Even though it took some urging
to get students signed up this far in
advance, Barry said he thinks the
reality of the event will affect them
in a big way.
“I think once the event happens
and the kids go through the entire
experience, that they’re going to be
wowed by the whole thing,” Barry
said. “It doesn’t come around every
year; it’s like once in a lifetime.” n