On the Space Shuttle Flight Deck!A bordo del Transbordador Espacial!

On Sunday morning after a healthy Turkish breakfast of eggs, black olives, assorted veggies like tomatoes, cucumber, as well watermelon, we left on a bus with all the campers to visit Izmir Private school (called colleji in Turkish). Once there we watched a movie on their modern Planetarium about Stargazing. Right next the kids went out with their epals Turkish family for n afternoon of multicultural exchange. The next day we were introduced to the flight simulator floor where there is a life size replica of the cabin of the Space Shuttle Discovery. Inside all teachers participated in a space shuttle simulation. We were asked to choose positions as part of the mission, and I chose Mission Specialist. The were several positions such as Mission Commander, Pilot, Payload Specialist, etc... just like the real thing. We had to follow procedures similar to the one followed by astronauts of the Space Shuttle, and had to read from a script aloud, from a microphone attached to our headphones. It sounded just like the real thing! Next we all took turns experiencing the different training machines used by astronauts to prepare for working in space. The training machines ranged from Zero Gravity, Spinning, EVA or Extravehicular Activity were we were strapped to a harness and had to work suspended attaching metal rods to metal spheres, just like astronauts will do when working outside of the Space Shuttle. It was awesome to experience floating and jumping just like we would if we were on the Moon or in Space. El domingo por la manana despues de un muy saludable desayuno a la usanza Turca compuesto de tortilla de huevos con papas, vegetales como tomates y pepinos, olivas negras, y sandia, nos dirigimos en autobus con todos los campistas y chaperones a visitar el Colegio Privado Izmir. Alli vimos un video en un muy modeno planetario sobre la historia de la Astronomia. Al final los chicos y chicas se fueron con una familia turca de Izmir a compartir una experiencia multicultural. Los maestros luego fuimos al otro dia al piso de los simuladores de vuelo donde habia un modelo a tamano real de la cabina del Transbordador Espacial Discovery, asi como varios equipos de entrenamiento de Zero Gravedad.

STUDENT CORNER/La Esquina Estudiantil

ISMAEL ESPEJO wrote: 
"I just came to Turkey this 'morning' . Today was awesome!! I met my pen-pal  (I think) and his family they were so nice! They took me to a famous restaurant where I ate some meaty-spicy cuisine that was so delicious! They took me to a tour of the City of Izmir, Turkey. I saw the famous Tower Clock, and ate some delicious ice cream and played chess with my partners from Turkey. Once I got back to the space camp, I got my team: I'm team PLUTO!!! My team is crazy awesome! I also got my cabin now, they call it Foxtrot, and the place looks just like the NY Environmental "Camp Clear Pool" but with no privacy. I'm also seeing that almost everybody knows Turkish, they showed me a little Turkish, but it's all good". Sunday, July 1, 2012
                                         ISMAEL escribio:

"Acabo de llegar a Turquia esta manana. Hoy ha sido un dia fantastico!! Conoci a mi nuevo amigo de Turquia y su familia son bien amables. Ellos me llevaron a un restaurante donde comi unos platos de comida suculentos y pimentosos. Me pasearon por la ciudad de Izmir, y me mostraron la Torre del Reloj historica. Comi un rico helado y jugue Ajedrez con mis amigos de Turquia. Al volver al campamento conoci a mi equipo llamado PLUTO!! Mi equipo es increible! Tambien me asignaron mi camarote de dormir llamado "Foxtrot". Se parece al campamento de NY llamado "Clear Pool" pero con menos privacidad. He notado que todos los campistas hablan el idioma Turco, y me han ensenado un poco. Todo esta de lo mas bien".
(Domingo, 1 de Julio, 2012)

JOHN ESPEJO wrote:
 6/3/12.Hi my name is John Espejo and today was fun. We went to the pool and it was at least 6 feet deep so you have to know how to swim to go. I went to the 6 feet part. There  was only 1 feet pool or 6 feet pool. Then we went to lunch. Later in the afternoon we did a Science fair, that was fun . My brother Ismael and I had to present to different groups of kids about our NASA Robotics Club at the CAS after-school program in NY. Mr.Fulcar created a Slide show showing  pictures of us learning to assemble and program the LEGO NXT Robot. We learned to work in teams and to troubleshoot the robot and even take it apart  in case it stopped working, just like engineers at NASA do when there is a problem in a mission.  The name of my team was "Pluto" and we keep doing a lot of cool stuff life the Space Shuttle Flight Simulator mission. Well and that was my day!
                                         JOHN  escribio:

Hola, mi nombre es John Espejo y hoy fue un dia muy divertido. Fuimos a la piscina y tenia por lo menos 6 pies de profundidad, por lo que hay que saber nadar my bien. Yo me fui hacia el lado de 6 pies a nadar. Luego nos fuimos a almorzar y mas tarde participamos en una Feria de Ciencia muy divertida. Mi hermano Ismael y yo tuvimos que hacer una presentacion a computadora sobre nuestro Club NASA /Robotica del Programa de Tareas de la Sociedad de Ayuda a La Ninez. Trabajamos delante de diferentes grupos de chicos y chicas, usando una presentacion visual de fotos que el Profesor Mr.Fulcar habia creado. Las fotos mostraban como nosotros armamos y programamos el Robot NXT de LEGO. Aprendimos tambien a trabajar en equipo, a resolver cualquier problema que el robot presentara, e incluso desarmarlo si era necesario, igual que hacen los ingenieros del programa espacial de la NASA cuando enfrentan  problemas en la mision. El nombre de mi equipo es "Team Pluto" y seguiremos haciendo mas actividades interesantes como simuladores de vuelo en el Modelo del Transbordador Espacial Discovery. Bueno asi me fue en el dia de hoy!  (Martes, 3 de Julio,2012)  

TRAVELING TO TURKEY! Viajando a Turquia!

  On Friday June 29, 2012 we arrived at JFK International Airport in New York City at around 9:00PM. Once there we met two young Dominican students from Middle School MS328 in Washington Heights (two blocks away from our Mirabal Sisters School Campus), as well as their chaperone, Mr.Cole. We also met a group of kids from Nashville, Tennessee, who were going to the Turkey Space Camp as well, and our wonderful trip coordinator Marilyn Kirby Anderson. After a two hours delay we finally took off on Turkish Air around 2:30am, and after what felt like an eternity we landed in Istanbul at around 6:00pm local time. For the record the service on board was excellent, with dinner and breakfast served on metal cutlery, like in the golden days of air travel. At Istanbul's Mustafa Kemal Ataturk International Airport we also met another group from Long Beach, California on their way to NASA Space Camp. We then caught another plane to Izmir, landing around 10:00pm Saturday night on June 30th. After waiting for about 2 hours we learned that my luggage as well as the girls' was to arrive the next day. When we arrived at the Space Camp Center it was 1:00am Sunday morning, July 1, 2012. We were welcomed by staff members and received sandwiches and fruits to eat. I fell in bed tired, sleepy, and with Jet Lag all at the same time. I could not believe we had being traveling for 24 hours!! 

 El viernes 29 de Junio del 2012 salimos hacia el Aeropuerto JFK y  nos encontramos a dos chicas jovenes estudiantes de 7mo grado de la Escuela Intermedia MS328 de Washington Heights, asi como su chaperon el Sr.Cole. Tambien nos reunimos con un grupo de estudiantes de Nashville, Tennessee, asi como nuestra fabulosa coordinadora del viaje Marilyn Anderson Kirby.Mas tarde al llegar a Istambul nos encontramos con un grupo de estudiante de Long neach, California, que iban tambien al campamento. Finalmente depues de un retraso de 2 horas despegamos , y despues de lo que parecio ser una eternidad aterrizamos en Istambul, cerca de las 6:00pm del sabado 30 de julio. Luego tomamos otro avion a nuestro destino final hacia Izmir a las 10:00pm, donde despues de esperar por algunas piezas de equipaje que no llegaron, arribamos al Campamento Espacial NASA. El personal nos recibio con una merienda y luego me tire en cama cansado y con Jet Lag: Increiblemente teniamos mas de 24 horas viajando!!

I am very passionate about the Environment and protecting God's creation.As an educator at Maria Teresa Mirabal Middle School MS319, I use environmental education as a way to teach across all subjects.It is my hope that more latino and african american innercity kids from Northern Manhattan become involved in pursuing careers in environmental conservation.In 2005 I founded a "friends of a park" group called the Friends of Sherman Creek,to advocate for the protection, restoration,and conservation of the tidal saltmarsh wetlands of Sherman Creek on the Harlem River,in Northen Manhattan.The mission of the group is to "promote environmental education after school programs,public access to the waterfront, and the creation of an Environmental Ecology Center and Community Boathouse/Public Pier at Sherman Creek".I am a member of the Highbridge Coalition, a group that has been advocating for the reopening of the Highbridge, oldest bridge in New York City(older than Brooklyn Bridge), and a member of the Harlem River Working Group, that brings together the many organizations that work on the Harlem River. I am also a member of the First Hispanic Baptist Church of Manhattan in the community of Washington Heights in New York City. As an after school educator I am proud to work with the Childrens Aid Society and Friends of Sherman Creek in launching my new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) program "Boatbuilding in the Classroom". This new and exciting initiative is aimed at providing much needed 21st Century career/trade education to innercity New York City Middle School youngsters with the help of "Building To Teach" teaching Math with Boats curriculum created by Yoe Youcha, from the Alexandria Seaport Foundation. 

NASA Space Camp Turkey/Campamento Spacial NASA Turquia

Welcome to my NASA/CAS Space Camp Turkey Blog!Bienvenidos a mi Blog de NASA/CAS Campamento Espacial Turquia!
Hi my name is Obed Fulcar, but my students call me Mr.Fulcar. The purpose of this blog is to keep everyone posted about what my students and I will experience during our trip to Space Camp Turkey this summer, as part of Childrens Aid Society (CAS) and Global Friendship Through Space Education (GFTSE) program. This wonderful program gives students in the United States the once in a lifetime opportunity to visit Eurasia to attend Space Camp at the Aegean Industrial Zone, in the ancient biblical city of Izmir, Turkey. Two middle school students from MS324 at the Mirabal Sisters Educational Campus, in Washington Heights, New York city, together with dozens of youngsters from other countries will be able to learn about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education by way of flight simulators, robotics, meet NASA astronauts, as well as Social Studies and Multi Cultural experiences whith their epals students from a high school in Istanbul. After exchanging emails with their epals, learning about the history and culture of Turkey, as well as building and programming Robots in our After school Boatbuilding and Robotics Club, John and Ismael, two dominican-american 8th grades students, were selected to participate in this year trip to Space Camp Turkey. Please come back as often as you want and feel free to post questions, comments, or just say hi. Gule Gule! (it means "See you" in Turkish) :)Hola mi nombre es Obed Fulcar, pero mis estudiantes me llaman Mr.Fulcar. Gracias por visitar esta pagina blog. El proposito de esta pagina es de mantener a todos informados sobre mis aventuras en Turquia en este verano junto a John e Ismael, dos jovenes estudiantes dominicanos de 8vo grado de la Escuela Intermedia MS324 del Campus Escolar Hermanas Mirabal, localizado en Washington Heights, en la ciudad de Nueva  York. como parte del programa Campamento Espacial NASA  patrocinado por La Sociedad de Ayuda a la Ninez (CAS siglas en ingles) y la Fundacion de Amista Global a travez de la Educacion Espacial (GFTSE siglas en ingles). Este maravilloso programa le ofrece la gran oportunidad a estudiantes de todos los EE.UU de poder viajar a Eurasia para asistir al Campamento Espacial Turquia NASA en la Zona Industrial de la antigua ciudad biblica de Esmirna, en Turquia. Estaran aprendiendo junto a astronautas de la NASA sobre CIENCIA, TECNOLOGIA, INGENIERIA, y MATEMATICAS por medio de simuladores de vuelo y robotica, asi como actividades multiculturales. Los estudiantes estaran compartiendo con jovenes de una escuela secundaria de Istambul con quienes se estuvieron comunicando durante todo el ano escolar, como parte del Club de Robotica y Construccion de Botes del program de tareas vespertino de La Sociedad de Ayuda a la Ninez. En esta pagina podran ver informacion actual sobre nuestras experiencias personales sobre la aventura en Turquia. Favor de visitar esta pagina blog cuantas veces deseen, y sientasen en libertad de escribir cualquier pregunta,comentario,o solo para saludar. Gule Gule! que significa "Hasta luego" en lengua turca. :)