October Sky

A week ago, in school, we watched a educational yet touching movie called October Sky. There were many connections to both science, math, and the character education traits we have been learning about for the past three years. To start out, this movie connects to rockets because Homer and his friends decided to create their own self-made rocket inspired by the Sputnik launch. Homer and his friends needed to discover what ingredients and the physical size of all the necessary tools to make the rocket work. The coal mines were a large part of this movie because Homer lived in a town in West Virginia where all boys grew up to work in the mines. This caused extreme problems around the town because of the large risks of injury, deaths, and danger to the worker's health. For instance, when Homer's friend was in the mine when an emergency happened. Sadly, Homer's friend died and Homer's father was severely injured. They boys also proved their innocence using math. They were accused of starting a forest fire because they couldn't account for all the rockets they had tested to launch, and they thought that one of their rockets caused a forest fire. The principal of their school had them arrested because he thought what they were doing, by building a rocket, was a disgrace to their town. These examples also show the character traits of all the women and men in the town. An example is cooperation. The group of boys cooperated through their differences and created a working rocket. Together, they also won the national science fair. They also showed self-control to their fellow peers. When everyone was calling them nerds, they stood for what they believed in and didn't let anyone tell them they were doing the wrong thing. Finally, they showed respect. They respected their town and decided to create their project in an open location, as well as, using all the necessities given to them properly.