Here is the CLASS annual report for 2013/2014:

1. I could make my usual report on the free planisphere program by stating that we reached our usual 46 states and 8 Canadian provinces, but these past two years go deeper than that. The trend has been that more girls than boys are requesting planispheres. More homeschoolers are requesting planispheres. More College students are requesting planispheres. A lot of teachers are requesting planispheres. Now in itself, this is not unusual, because they request them for their class and we clearly state that we do not have the budget to supply large groups or classes, but will provide them with our source, and of course, we have three links on the webpage where they can build their own. But lately a teacher will request one planisphere for use to teach all the students in her class even though the website says free planispheres for students. Since this is a very efficient use of a single planisphere, I will go ahead and send the teacher the planisphere.
   • I do not have requests for planispheres from Alaska or Hawaii and could not send them from my supply because of their extreme southern and northern latitudes, but I had a very unusual request from Hawaii. A teacher of a class of special needs students requested a free planisphere for her class. Well, I just couldn’t turn her down, so I bought my favorite plastic Chandler planisphere for the Hawaii latitude out of my own pocket and sent it to her.
   • Finally, we have Scout Troop Leaders requesting one planisphere for use by their scout troop, and even an assisted living facility being taught astronomy needing a planisphere for use in the course. So as you can see, the planisphere program is still going great guns.
2. The summer library program has gone completely nuts so it is a good thing that I am retired. The Dallas Library System has 29 branches, and I have been giving my general astronomy PowerPoint presentation “A Tour of the Universe” to about 12 to 15 of them each summer for their Summer Reading Program for their kids. I have been doing this for many years, and the branches change, but over the years I have grown to know many of the library managers and have followed them through their careers as they move from branch to branch. What is sad is that they have limited budgets, and speakers like puppet shows actually charge them to come speak to the kids. The most expensive is Science at $400.00, so that is why they love me and keep inviting me back year after year because I am free.
   • Last year the Kleberg-Rylie branch found out I did Solar Observing Sessions and had me back two weeks later to do one after a presentation. Well, word spread like wildfire so this year I will be doing both presentations and then Solar Observing Sessions. Busy, busy, busy.
   • The manager at the Martin Luther King branch moved to Arlington so now I do a presentation at her Arlington branch.
   • I have been doing presentations at the Central Library in Downtown Dallas for about five years now and we usually have only about 9 to 12 kids because no one lives downtown. Last year over 70 kids poured into the auditorium and I am thinking “ Where in hell did they all come from?”. The Children’s Librarian then explained to me that the City had opened a school across the street for at risk kids, and they had invited them over for the presentation. COOL!!!
   • The manager of the Central Library Downtown took over the Carrollton Library System so now she wants me to come to Carrollton this summer and give presentations to the two Carrollton branches.
   • The Lewisville Public Library found CLASS online and asked me to do a presentation to their kids at an After School Session. A month later, they asked me to come back and do a Solar Observing Session for their second, third and fourth graders. I asked my good friend Gary Carter and his daughter Samantha to help out and we had a great time. The Library will have an important traveling exhibit on the Science of Benjamin Franklin stop at the Library and they have asked Gary and I to come back and do another Solar Observing Session, but this time for the general public.
   • Conducted a Transit of Venus Observing Session at Park Forest Branch Library for the City of Dallas.
3. School Program – Last year I mentored an at risk fifth grade minority student at Meadows Elementary School on Plano’s East Side. It was very fulfilling and the school was so desperate for mentors that I did it again this year as well.
   • Helped judge Science Fairs for third, fourth, and fifth graders at McCall, Meadows, and Forman Elementary schools.
   • Spent two days at a seminar at the Johnson Space Center in Houston where I studied the Mayan Culture, and the Mayan Calendar Hoax, and then gave a two hour lecture on how to give presentations to minority populations since that is what CLASS has been focusing on for the last twelve years.
   • Spent two days at First United Methodist Church in Richardson with 90 kids first doing a Solar Observing Session and then doing a Class room presentation on the sun and types of telescopes.
   • Did a presentation at Slaughter Elementary School for 145 students.
   • McCall Elementary School has an Astronomy Club and each year I do a presentation. This year I did my usual presentation, but a month later they had a speaker cancel, and when they found out I was an expert on the Mayan Calendar Hoax, they asked me to come speak at the last minute. I took about 45 minutes to talk about Mayan culture, astronomy, mathematics, and the Hoax itself and why it was a Hoax. When I opened it up for questions, I ended up spending another 45 minutes answering the parents’ questions on about ten other astronomy hoaxes. Great meeting.
   • Did presentations at McCall and Meadows Elementary Schools Science Day to about 80 students and then did back to back presentations to 100 Hunt Elementary School Students for Career Day.
   • Did back to back presentations to 90 8th. grade science students at Robinson Middle School during Career Day.
   • Gave a presentation to about 60 students of the North Texas Home School Association to help them meet their Astronomy requirement. And guess what? We met at a library. Go figure.

CLASS is a member of the Night Sky Network, the Afterschool Alliance, Calendar In the Sky, Astronomers Without Borders, Time Warner Cable Connect A Million Minds, Coalition for Science After School, and NASA’s Space Place.

We receive support in the way of materials to hand out to minorities in the inner city from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Johnson Space Center, The Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and the Goddard Space Flight Center.

John W. Wagoner – President – CLASS

City Lights Astronomical Society for Students (C.L.A.S.S.)
1409 Sequoia Dr.
Plano, TX 75023

(972) 422-1886
www.classusa.org
john@classusa.org

Arcadia Park Solar 5	Kleberg Rylie CLASS 1
Gary and Samantha 1	Lewisville Library 1