Response to October Sky

Last week in class we watched a movie a movie called October Sky which was based on a true story. The movie was very influential and educational. It taught us many things about rockets as well as character education.
October Sky was about a high school boy, Homer, who after seeing a satellite shoot across the sky, is fascinated by rockets. With the help of his friends and teacher he overcomes many obstacles and finally launches their hand-made rocket, that will be entered into a science fair, even though his father disapproves because he wants Homer to work in the coal mine. Than one of their successful rocket lands on a place where a fire is started and Homer and his friends are accused of starting the fire. Because if this their dreams are crushed and they stop creating rockets. Homer also drops out of school to take over his Dad's position at the mine. However, after reading his teacher's, Miss. Riley's, book, he realizes that his rocket couldn't have started the fire because it couldn't have traveled that far. After calculating many solutions, Homer and friends find their rocket and conclude that the fire was started by a flare from a airport. Now that they know that they haven't done anything wrong, Homer and his friends continue building rockets and win first place in the science fair. From there, Homer goes onto the a big compititon in Indiana where he also wins and recieves many scholarships.
The movie connects to math and science in numerous way. Some obvious ones are how much October Sky talks about rockets and science fairs and less obvious ones like how it educates us about health dangers. Viewers of October Sky learn a lot about rockets after watching this movie because the movie revolves around it. Rockets connect to science because it follows Newton's Laws and teaches us a little about Physics. We also learn about Suptnik (the satellite that inspires Homer to start creating rockets) and that connects to science because from satellites we can get information about the solar systems from it. Additionally, we learn aboun health dangers from watching October Sky. When doing a lab in science class, Quentin throws something into the sink and when another girl puts a lit match into the sink, all the burners in the classroom catch on fire. This teaches us about health dangers because we should never do anything that isn't in the instructions or what the teacher has told us to do because than someone could get seriously hurt.
October Sky also teaches us about CARES. Homer and his friends all worked together as a team to build a rocket and only then they were successful. If they didn't show cooperation and assertion than maybe they might never have had a successful launch. Respect was also shown in this movie because Mrs. Riley respected the Rocket Boys and their dream to create a rocket even though no one else did. Homer's mom showed empathy towards her son and his friends because her husband didn't help with the creation of the rockets. Last but not least, Homer had self-control when his dad banned him from creating rockets and when he and his friends were accused of starting the fire.