Sithok: Science in the Hands of Kids

By John McConnell

John McConnell was visiting elementary school classrooms to teach science when he came upon a shy third-grade boy who did not want to go to school.

Ryan wanted to stay home and build robots.

That sparked McConnell’s interest, and he discovered Ryan had an intensity for electronics uncommon for his age. The boy already had great building skills and was doing circuit drawings.

The author’s curiosity led him to mentor Ryan—an arrangement that lasted well beyond college and resulted in the winning of $500,000 worth of cash, scholarships, and a Dr. Glen Seaborg week trip to the Nobel Awards.

When McConnell was not mentoring Ryan, he was visiting classes in the area, presenting his program hands-on science and mentoring other students. When a school district gave him six thousand square feet of space, he created the Western Colorado Math & Science Center with over 150 exhibits. Students came on field trips from more than 100 miles away.

McConnell also conducted science workshops to train teachers, capping his career of volunteerism by founding the Eureka! McConnell Science Museum in Grand Junction, Colorado.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: Jan 25, 2022
• ISBN: 9781665715980

John McConnell

JOHN H. MCCONNELL, SPHR is president of McConnell-Simmons and Company, a human resources consulting firm.

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Copyright © 2022 John Mcconnell.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

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ISBN: 978-1-6657-1581-2 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-1580-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-1598-0 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2021924524

Archway Publishing rev. date: 01/25/2022

Contents

Foreword

Acknowledgments

A Place to Retire

Odyssey of the Mind and Wingate Elementary

Meeting Ryan

2nd Visit To See Ryan

Ryan to the House

Monday Through Friday

Saturdays with Ryan

7th Grade Science Fair

A Very Busy Year 1998

Fun at The Fair (1999 Philadelphia)

Western Colorado Math & Science Center

Methods in the Center

Sleuthbot & Detroit Fair

SIGN LANGUAGE TRANSLATOR

Summer of 2001 Seaborg & Siemens

Olympic Torch Run

2002

Derek Vigil

Cole in Denver

Trinidad Connection

Topeka And The Muffin Man

Science on the Road

Zina Lahr

EUREKA

Ramblings & Reflections

For Audrey – wife and companion for over 71 years,

without her support it would never have happened.

FOREWORD

This book contains John ‘s and Audrey’s story. It is the story of an energetic physicist and his wife who invested their retirement years introducing young people of this nation to the excitement of learning science in a hands-on way. The reader will sense the ‘thrill of victory and the agony of defeat’ as John tells that story!

How could I have known that my future as a retiree was being shaped at that church Christmas party in Grand Junction, Colorado, the one at which I met John McConnell in1998? I had recently retired from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory after decades of working in various engineering and management roles on numerous pioneering space projects. I wanted to work with students to instill in them an interest in science and math but only had a vague idea of how that might happen.

John was introduced to me as a retiree from the U. S. Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Laboratory; and what he was already doing intrigued me. His project was something I could relate to. His invitation to join him in his adventure was just what I wanted to hear.

As we began our relationship while pursuing the establishment of the next version of John’s dream, we discovered that our complementary talents, experiences, and perspectives were going to be a big plus. His were more technical and mine were more operational and administrative. When issues arose we spent the time necessary to exchange ideas and find suitable solutions These consultations, addressing items such as What will our fee structure be? sometimes went well into the night but proved to be very effective.

Early on I observed that John felt strongly that students needed to have hands-on experiences to augment their book-learning to better appreciate the beauty and knowledge of the subject matter., If he could create exhibits/ experiments (along with explanatory signage) that demonstrated specific science principles, a student could have a fun learning experience during a one-to-two-hour visit.

This meant that many exhibits would have to be conceived, designed, and constructed. John committed himself to accomplishing this, usually at the expenditure of his own resources, measured in hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars.

By the time I met John, he and his wife, Audrey, had already established a pattern of travelling throughout western Colorado with his experiments in the back of their car and bringing the excitement of learning to students, regardless of whether theirs was an urban school or a one-room rural school. His reputation was becoming established. This is borne out by the many times over the years when John would meet these students about town, they still recognized him as Mr. Bubbles.

John sure loves the student learners. This is so evident when one observes the joy on his face when they are quietly ‘learning," when they approach to get ‘his’ help, or to say ‘Thank you’ Those of us who have witnessed this behavior consider it to have been a special privilege.

John’s powers of persuasion proved to be critical in whatever future success his enterprise was to achieve. His thinking evolved to the point where he realized that he could be more productive, and he could interact with more students if he could stay in one place and have the students and teachers come to him. After some negotiations, Tom Parrish, principal of Wingate Elementary School near his home, gave him space where he could aggregate his experiments and interact with visiting groups. It seemed as if that space was filled to over-flowing in the blink of an eye!

He again felt the need to address the school district that he could help them serve more students better if he only had a more spacious facility in which to operate.

When I became actively involved in his work, he was in the transition phase of moving from the single classroom to a newly renovated 6,000 square -foot space in New Emerson School. This would not be the last time we would transition from one facility to another!!

Initially, there were three of us volunteers who worked closely with John to layout the New Emerson facility, design tables to display the various experiments, and to bring the empty hall to life, one of our corollary tasks was to find more volunteers.

Fortunately, we had some success doing that. We needed docents for guiding students, experiment builders and maintainers to keep our displays current, and administrative staff to answer phones, coordinate visitations with teachers, and interact with suppliers, etc.

For a variety of reasons, I deduced that among the cadre of volunteers we had assembled, I was the best suited to interface with docent volunteers and to schedule their support commensurate with the times teachers had selected to bring their classes in for field trips. This worked well for me and my other commitments, leaving more evening time available to do this.

Oddly, finding my replacement as Volunteer Coordinator took 9½ years before a lady agreed to raise her hand. I needed some time away, and her stepping up was a welcome relief.

Honors of all sorts came to John over the years; from President George H. W. Bush (Daily Points of Light), the U.S. Department of Education, and the local community. I’m sure that one of the sweetest was the community’s selecting him to carry the Olympic torch on its last leg as it wended its way through the streets of Grand Junction on its way to the 2000 Winter Olympics. (John lit the local cauldron, and says it got a bit hot pulling off that ceremony!)

John seemed to be capable of manufacturing extra hours each week to achieve the many tasks he felt compelled to accomplish. A primary activity he devoted himself to was the mentoring of a young man I’ll call his primo-protégé, Ryan Patterson. They, began working together when Ryan was in the third grade, this partnership continued on nearly every Saturday, culminating in Ryan’s winning the top prize at the 2001 Intel International Science Fair, the Seaborg prize of a trip to Stockholm to witness the Nobel Award ceremonies. In addition, he won the Siemens Competition in Math, Science and Technology and the Intel Science Talent Search for a total of $500,000 in cash, scholarships, and the Nobel trip.

The University of Colorado awarded John an honorary doctorate degree in 2004 for all his good work in fostering science education among our youth.

Independent of any pleasant distractions over the years, we still had to maintain and operate a sizeable science center that was now visited by thousands of people each year. Led by the McConnell’s, this was accomplished using volunteers and a small paid staff. Volunteers, answering the call, were the life-blood of our operation!

In this timeframe it was determined that the enterprise deserved more community business involvement in guiding this Mom-and-Pop operation into becoming a self-sustaining tax-exempt organization. John needed and deserved help. This led to our incorporation, the formation of the initial Board of Directors, the attainment of our 5.01(c) 3 tax exempt status, and the hiring of an Executive Director.

Upon the resignation of our initial Executive Director in late-2015 her replacement guided us into our next phase of development…a new, larger facility. In March 2018 the Board of Directors and staff opened the EUREKA! McConnell Science Museum in John’s and Audrey’s honor on the campus of Colorado Mesa University. This move to a brand new, modern facility marked the last time we should have to deal with a major transition!

I have been a Board member since we have had a Board of Directors, circa 2005. Prior to the construction of the EUREKA! I agreed to serve as the Board’s representative on the Architects and Contractors Committee, along with our Executive Director. Now that it is built, I have acquired Board Member Emeritus status, along with John.

Of the many projects I have been associated with in my life, this is the one which has given me the most joy!

John’s and Audrey’s humility, kindness, and generosity along with their dedication to this mission they have chosen marks them as one of the most remarkable couples you will find.

My hope is that this Foreword gives you a glance into what makes them tick. I encourage you to read the book to really experience the details of this adventure that has already benefited so many.

Allan Conrad

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Over the last 30 years I have seen and worked with about 120,000 kids. First off I want to thank the parents of these students for sharing them with both Audrey and I. They have been an incredible group of young people who were great listeners, and experimenters, wanting to learn science through hands-on activities. It made our job of presenting it both easy and fun.

I owe the Mesa County Valley School District 51 a huge thank you for their support over many years. They had to have had a great trust in me when they gave me about 6,000 sq ft of space in the New Emerson School building. I did not have to go before the school board, and the only instructions given me was do your thing. With that the Western Colorado Math & Science Center was born, the name was later changed by the Board of Directors to the John McConnell Math & Science Center. Tom Parrish, principal of Wingate Elementary School, was very supportive and instrumental in my starting this project.

Volunteers are the backbone of so many non-profit organizations and it was no different here. If you can imagine, I along with my wife Audrey, were starting this endeavor with no organization, board of directors, etc. and we had this large space to fill up. I was so fortunate to meet Allan Conrad, a recent Jet Propulsion Lab retiree, at a church Christmas party in 1998. He was intrigued by what I wanted to do for kids and science and came on board. I am so thankful for his help over all these years and he like myself is a Board Member Emeritus of EUREKA! McConnell Science Museum. We have had so many wonderful volunteers over the years to be thankful for and especially Walt Fite, and Jack Costello who have been volunteering since 2000. These people all loved to work with kids.

The community of Grand Junction has been so supportive of this mission. Presentations were made to the service clubs in my early planning stage and they were all positive in their response. In the beginning days of construction when we had little money, Phillip Roskowski of SSD Plastics jumped right on the bandwagon as did Chris Muhr of All Metals where Ryan’s dad Randy Patterson worked. Paul Cruz of the Neon Factory filled out the three companies that have been building things from day one to now. From the start I needed help, support, and advice on live displays such as fish, bugs, bees, etc. I so appreciate Dr. Randy Rottman, an ophthalmologist, for all that support over all these years.

There are so many, including companies, professional groups, foundations, clubs, individuals and more who gave great support and to the funding of the Eureka! McConnell Science Museum. We thank you all.

Special thanks to Leila Ferrari and Randall Kautz for reading the manuscript and providing their helpful comments. Mistakes you find are mine. Thanks again go out to Randall for his work to make the photos presentable.

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COLORADO NATIONAL MONUMENT FROM OUR HOUSE

A Place to Retire

It was 1988, my wife Audrey and I were thinking about retiring. Audrey had retired as head of teller operations at the Los Alamos Credit Union, and I was working as a physicist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. We were ready to make a change. The search for where to go had begun, we made a couple of trips to Prescott, AZ. It looked promising, but we were not sure yet. We had lived in Ames, Iowa and I worked at Iowa State University, the Ames Laboratory, as a physicist at the Nuclear Research Reactor. The climate gave problems to Audrey’s health so that precipitated our move to Los Alamos, NM in 1974.

We were completing sixteen years at Los Alamos, NM. Audrey’s health dictated we stay in a dry climate, the search was on for a retirement location and there were priorities to be met. We wanted a location with a symphony, a small college atmosphere, and excellent regional medical facilities. A young mechanical engineer (Mike Borden) in my group at the Los Alamos National Laboratory had grown up in Grand Junction, CO, and encouraged us to look there. In February of 1990 we were off to look the town over, it looked promising with our priority list. We subscribed to the local paper and headed for there, a drive of 380 miles.

It was the trip home that Audrey will not forget, we checked the road conditions with the state patrol, and with an OK headed over Red Mountain Pass south of Ouray, known for being dangerous in the wintertime due to the steep 8% grade and switchbacks on the north sides facing Ouray. The pass reaches a summit of 11,018 feet and is a scenic drive in the San Juan Mountains summer or winter. The road is narrow with a number of avalanche slide paths, and since the snowplows need to move snow somewhere, there were no guardrails separating the vehicles from the edge of the road and a huge drop. We started up the pass to find it was snow packed with no traffic. It was no place for a rear drive van that can be like a pig on ice. Audrey felt her feet were making dents in the floorboard. The tire chains were put on, and slowly we made our way to Silverton, which welcomed us with hot chocolate and coffee. On twenty-three miles of snow-covered road, we met only one other either foolish or brave driver like me. Probably foolish is more the correct term.

We were so happy to see that little warm restaurant with its great coffee, hot chocolate, and breakfast rolls. Leaving there we still had Molas Pass, 10,918 ft/3325 m, but more hospitable to navigate before getting the 48 miles to Durango. Thank goodness that over the peak the road conditions improved so we could take the tire chains off. Aside from the snowy roads, the scenery was incredible. After lunch at Durango, we finished the 207-mile trip home to Los Alamos.

The ball was rolling, and we made the decision it was the year to retire, and after a couple more trips we were convinced we had found the right town. We looked at houses to buy, but decided to buy a lot and build so I could have a shop and a place to park the travel trailer. That decision later turned out to be decisive we found out later. We decided on a one-acre lot in the southwest part of town, the beautiful Colorado National Monument being nearly in our front yard. What a beautiful place to build, on a dead end street that is so quiet. The house was started in July and completed for our move in for Thanksgiving of 1990. We moved everything to Grand Junction, and I returned to Los Alamos to finish out the year and retire.

Mike had told me how warm and great the winter weather was in our new town; it was like the banana belt. Well, it turned out that winter was very cold and lots of snow. It had been so moderate the town had essentially no snow removal equipment, although the county did. And we lived in the county. I asked Audrey, What happened to this banana belt? But it gave me time to organize my shop, finally having a warm place to work after having to work in my cold garage in New Mexico. I had many woodworking tools including table and band saw, drill press, planer, joiner, and a wood lathe. I had made many trips to Albuquerque to take classes in wood turning, carving, and other wood related skills. It was 1991, and time to start using those skills. There were those thoughts about what to do with our time and two things emerged. One was to do wood turnings and sell them at craft fairs. For that endeavor we had made two trips to Strawberry Point, Iowa to buy beautiful hardwoods. It was so wonderful to have time to turn bowls, plates, ring holders, etc.

But another thing was on our minds, we said in retirement we should give something back to the community where we moved so we began to volunteer. The Museum of Western Colorado operated what is known as Cross Orchards Living History Farm, a 24-acre site that once was part of a 243-acre fruit farm operated by the Red Cross Land and Fruit Company, 1896-1923. As volunteers our dress was of the times, a long dress for Audrey, and for me pants with suspenders, long sleeve shirt of the time, and a straw hat. The mornings for her began in the bunkhouse with building a wood fire in the old cook stove, and baking cookies in the heat of summer, whew! No electricity or fans allowed. I split the wood for the fire in the morning then worked in the woodshop using old tools like a treadle jigsaw. We looked a bit like the 1930 oil painting American Gothic by artist Grant Wood. It was a fun year of volunteering culminating with decorating the farm for Christmas as it would have been in the early 1900’s with candles, popcorn strings, handmade ornaments, etc.

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AUDREY AND I VOLUNTEERING AT CROSS

ORCHARDS LIVING HISTORY FARM

The wood turning was taking hold, I had enough material made that Audrey and I could set up for the Christmas 1991 Craft Fair at the city convention center. It was a good feeling to see people appreciate the efforts that goes into making something you can feel in your hands. But I must say that the idea of following this goal in the long term did not resonate very strongly. What we did not sell became very nice gifts for friends and family, as probably it should have been in the first place. It is part of that finding what you want to do in your retirement years.

In the spring of 1991 I went looking for other forms of volunteering and involvement at the Retired Senior Volunteer Program(RSVP). The Director, Dot Hoskins, asked me if I would like to work with kids. I must admit I was not too sure about that. I had not been around kids for so long, so I rejected that suggestion. But shortly after that my neighbor asked me if I would help him coach a team of elementary kids in Odyssey of The Mind competition. I agreed to help, but not lead. Little did I know what I was headed for.

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WINGATE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Odyssey of the Mind and Wingate Elementary

It was January 1991, a little over a year since our moving from Los Alamos. Dietrich(Deets) Schmidt was building a new house on the next lot south of us. His was a young family, and he was being his own general contractor, doing a lot of the work himself. I had spare time and wondered if he could use some help.

Deets, is there something I can help you with on the house?

With a huge smile, I could use some help with the trim work.

I can help you with that, but I do not have a chop saw.

No problem, I have one you can use.

Great, show me what and how you want it done.

We went in the house and took a look at what materials he had and what was to be done.

I will have to do some practice on doing those bull-nose corners. The work began. I never had a second thought about volunteering to do it, for it was part of my neighboring background. Neighboring on the farm in Southeast Nebraska meant you went over and helped your neighbor with putting up the hay, harvesting, etc. Your neighbor in turn