October Sky

The movie, October Sky was a very inspirational movie. It showed that if you really want something, you can achieve it. Homer, a child living in a coal mining community, has a very difficult life. Coal mines could kill numerous people, and were very dangerous. In a cold mining community like Homers', the coal mines owned everything in the town, including, houses, shops, stores, and schools. One member of the family had to be working in the mines at all times to live there. Homer's dad worked at the mine and believed the occupations to do after ending school were either getting a football scholarship, or going to the mines. Most people in this town believed in this concept of life as well. Homer, and a few of his friends wanted to think beyond this. With the motivation of his teacher, and the release of a new spaceship Sputnik (first shuttle going into space, built by the Russians), rockets became a fascination for these young boys. After several attempts, even after being kicked off their own land and having to find a clear space eight miles away, Homer and his friends finally launched their rocket. They had help from a couple of adults, but mainly figured it out themselves. Many people attended their rocket launching, and now appreciate Homer and his friend's dreams more. One day, his father gets into an severe accident at the coal mine and his dad could not go to work for a while. Homer drops out of school to support his family, because he doesn't want his brother to, and loose his football scholarship. His father eventually gets better and continues working at the coal mine. Later on, the mayor of the town baned them from launching anymore rockets because he thought one started a forest fire. Homer used math to figure out that it wasn't their rocket, and started working on the science fair rocket with his friends. They won the state competition and later won the national science fair and got a science scholarship. His dad finally starts supporting Homer at science.

This story connects to science and math in many ways. From rockets to the simple health dangers this movie shows, it is very educational. Homer and his friends use the physical science to build their rocket. Newton's laws helped them control the gravity and make the rocket go up, not down. The science fair in the movie involved many different sciences in every station. Coal mines also related to science because the people mining these mines used light underground, and the coal found was used for many different jobs such as creating a fire. In addition, Sputnik and the Russians used physical and earth science to launch their first rocket. They, again, used Newton's Laws, and also when beyond the earth's crust and got a look of earth for a far distance. Safety in the lab was also displayed, when Quentin and Homer throw something in the sink and another girl throws a match in the sink and all the burners in the room lit up. It showed this was the wrong thing to do and that you should never throw something in the sink without a teacher's permission. Lastly, the connection to math was the use of parabolas. Homer used parabolas to find the it was not his rocket that caused the forest fire.

Character Education is an important life lesson to learn. This movie, October Sky, and the characters within the story, showed C.A.R.E.S. characteristics. Homer shows determination because he was trying every way to learn about rockets. Quentin show perseverance when he tried every way imaginable to build a rocket, and was trying his best at it. Homer also shows self-control when his father is hurt and he has to give up school to work in the mine, which is not his favorite job to do. All of Homer's friends showed cooperation and assertion when working together on the rocket and believing that the rocket could fly sooner or later. In addition, Homer shows respect to his father, and listened to him when he said to fly rockets elsewhere, not on the coal mine property. Lastly, Homer showed empathy for his teacher when he found out she had cancer. Character Education was a large part in this movie.

This movie also had a personal effect on me. October Sky was very inspiring and promoted me to try new things. It showed that anything is possible, if you try your hardest. This movie got me interested in Sputnik, and rockets. It makes me wonder about the people working at space research facilities, like NASA. Overall, this was a fascinating movie.