October Sky! =)

Not too long ago we watched the movie October Sky. It was a very splendid movie and had so many connections to math, science and character education. First of all, it connected to math and science with the fact that the teenagers built a rocket! They had to figure out the right type and amount of chemicals to use to make the rocket fly. They also had to figure out the right way to shape the rocket so it would go up. This took a lot of determination to keep trying new ideas when one of them didn't work. Along with that, the boys had been blamed for causing a forest fire with their rocket so they had to prove they were innocent. So, Homer used a lot of math to figure out his trajectory rate and on his paper you could see he used a parabola to help him figure out the course of the rocket. This took persaverence because Homer had to keep trying to get the right coordinates of where his rocket landed and he had to learn a lot of math skills to do this. There was also science in the coal mines where Homer's father worked. The different types of rock they were mining has to do with science and some of the hazards they dealed with, such as the dust they could inhale had to do with science too.
Along with determination and persaverance, cooperation, respect and assertion were exhibited in the movie too. All of Homer's friends cooperated with him when he said that he wanted to win that science fair and get a college scholarship. They thought it was ridiculous at first but they went along with it anyway. Assertion was also shown. Homer's father was assertive when he found out about Homer's plan to launch a rocket. He said no rockets on company ground. He figured rockets would get him nowhere in life. Homer respected his dad's wishes and walked a few miles out of town to some open land where he could experiment with the launches without disobeying his dad.
This movie was super swell and taught me so much! After seeing how hard Homer worked, I now realize that if I really want something, I need to work hard for it.