All About the CLASS Project
CLASS stands for CLAymont Shuttle Simulator.
My name is Chad Shumaker. Claymont City Schools is the district I work for. We are located in Uhrichsville, Tuscarawas County, Ohio. I teach 8th grade Science at the Junior High. I am a firm
believer that kids learn the most when they can work with something hands on. Yes, lecture and notes sessions are important, as are tests and quizzes, but kids really look forward to lab days!
They know they will get to produce, witness, or experience something cool that may just teach them something in the process.
On February 1, 2010 my students began a new unit on Space. I was going out of my mind trying to think of something beneficial and fun for them to do that would really get them into the topic.
One day on my prep period, I was surfing the web looking for ideas.
Now, I am in my mid-30's. I am a child of the 80's and grew up seeing the evolution of the Space Shuttle program. I am also a Classic Gamer. Over the years, I have amassed a huge collection of classic video game systems (like Atari, Intellivision, Colecovision and Vectrex).
I suddenly recalled that the game company Activision had released a game back in 1983 called "Space Shuttle: A Journey Into Space". At the time it was incredibly sophisticated and was highly praised by gamers and educators alike. It was complex enough to be called a simulator but easy enough to be fun and have replay value.
I thought it would be cool to bring it in for the kids to try- I mean, why not, I have brought my Atari 2600 in for years the day before Christmas Break and on the last day of school and the kids loved it. They really got into the old classics!
Then, I had a second brainstorm, why not build a cabinet to house the Atari 2600 system in and make a kind of crude simulator like a real astronaut in training would use? It would sort of be like Atari's cockpit version of the classic coin-op Star Wars.
I contacted another staff member who is very good at wood working and asked if this could be done. He was confident we could do it and our ideas rolled from there. I also told my building principal who offered financial support for materials.
When this is all said and done, we hope to have created a 3 foot wide, 5 foot tall, 4.5 foot long Space Shuttle simulator at an approximate cost of $250 (hopefully less).
The unit should be able to be taken apart and stored when not in use. It could potentially be used with another simulator called F-14 Tomcat by Absolute Software.
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