Audubon Society Workshop

If you have visited McWane any time over the last few months, you have seen the majestic tree filled with birds that dominates the middle of the second floor. The tree is the centerpiece of the NatureScope exhibit which was created as a partnership between McWane and the Birmingham Audubon Society (BAS). The exhibit includes educational displays, a stage with seating for group shows, and the BAS office itself, cleverly camouflaged as a rustic cabin. BAS Education Director Helena Uber-Wamble and Administrative Director BJ Allen share space in the BAS office. According to BAS President Maureen Shaffer, “With Helena’s professional efforts and our partnership with McWane Science Center, we are reaching a whole new audience.”

This Saturday, September 11, from 10 am-1 pm, McWane and the BAS are offering a Bluebird Box Workshop! Bring your family to learn about bluebirds together. Following a presentation on the cavity nesters of Alabama and their nesting requirements, each participant will build their very own Bluebird Box to take home! The cost for the workshop is $10.00 per person. Please call 205-714-8414 to make a reservation by Friday, September 10.

“Our partnership with the McWane Science Center has helped us launch a great series of programs at the NatureScope exhibit,” said Helena. “NatureScope offers a closeup view of birds and the chance to learn their songs. Our presence on the stage to educate visitors has inspired many folks to stop and share stories of their experiences with birds in their back yards and on their journeys. The enthusiasm is contagious!”

After visiting the new exhibit, one Mom wrote this on her blog: “On Tuesday we went to the McWane Center, our hands-on childrens' science museum. We go there regularly, but on Tuesday, we got to do something we have never done before. The Birmingham Audubon Society has recently opened an office inside the McWane Center. Along with their office, they have built a fabulous exhibit about birds commonly found in Alabama. We spent about thirty minutes with the Audubon Society's educator, who taught my daighter eight common bird calls and how to listen for them in our yard. She was fascinated, and has been reading a book about birds we got at the library. She just told me she wants to go outside tomorrow morning between 6:00 and 10:00 because that's the best time to listen for the birds. Helena, the Audubon educator, offered to come to our house to do a homeschool program about the birds found in our yard. We are so excited!”

In addition to the Audubon programs and bird exhibits, new bug exhibits are now crawling inside McWane Science Center! The new exhibits include—Bug Scope, Ant Casting, and What’s Bugging You. These fun and interactive new exhibits join the environmental area that already includes live bugs like the giant millipede, the hairy Tirantula and an Emperor Scorpion. The new additions are sure to give you the creepy crawlies as well as teach about the friends that share our big back yard.

Come see what all the excitement is about. Make plans to attend the Bluebird Box Workshop, or come visit the NatureScope exhibit at McWane this weekend!

By Dana Crisson, Manager of Community Relations

The New Space Race: Um, Where are We Headed Again?

By Ben Moon, Manager of Space and Technology

If you take a look at NASA’s proposed budget over the next 3 years years, you’ll see several things that stand out.

1. We’re retiring the Space Shuttles and sending them to museums.

2. We’re not going back to the Earth’s moon.

3. We’ve got nothing to take people into space immediately after the Shuttles retire.

Things are up in the air right now (no pun intended) as Washington and lawmakers battle over NASA’s Constellation program (which was going to replace the Shuttles with the Ares rockets) to try to save it or scrap it completely in favor of private industry taking over America’s push into space.

Some disagree with the changes the current administration is proposing and believe that NASA needs a clear, stated target and not a nebulous “further into space” idea. Some argue that it’s the right move, that Constellation was over budget and behind schedule, that private industry is what space exploration needs, and that the new plan is a game changer, not unlike the moon race of the 1960’s.

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said during a February NASA budget press conference that federal funding for near-term robotic missions “will pave the way for later human exploration of the moon, Mars and nearby asteroids.” Notice he used the word “later,” meaning the U.S. won’t be sending any Americans up on American-made spacecraft for the next few years.

Meanwhile other countries are still sending people into space. The Russians and Chinese are sending people into space on their Soyuz rockets and Long March rockets respectively. It’s a possibility that Americans may rent a ride on Soyuz rockets, but the Russians have already begun increasing the cost to do so dramatically.

So as the battle plays out, only time will tell exactly what the landscape of U.S. manned space flight will look like.

NASA’s vision has been “To understand and protect our home planet, To explore the Universe and search for life, and To inspire the next generation of explorers... as only NASA can. But let’s say you want to go into space now and don’t want to wait on NASA or congress or anybody. Well, there may actually be hope for you.

There are some private companies that are about to begin sending people into space, for different reasons than NASA. For the company XCOR Aerospace, its vision is the “dream of spaceflight for its founders who recognize that the only way for them to get to space is to make it affordable for private citizens.” For the company SpaceX, the goal is “revolutionizing the cost and reliability of access to space.” Virgin Galactic seeks to lead the industry of “space tourism.” Whatever the reasons may be, these pursuits are good for the industry as a whole.

For a private company, the bottom line is one of the biggest concerns. They don’t want to waste money on unnecessary pursuits or time, and certainly not mission anomalies (accidents). They take their work very seriously and this work could pave the way for new scientific discovery and better ways of doing things. It’s time they got their piece of the pie.

So what does the immediate future of U.S. manned spaceflight look like? Possibly something like this:

Or this:
Or this:
Tell us what you think....