Special Interest Teams

For the Galaxy Explorers (GE's) who want to sharpen their special interests and participate beyond the minimum hourly requirements we have fun clubs you can join. Participation in these teams is not required. Membership lasts only 1 school semester at a time. Most teams do not meet during the summer months. If you decide to join a team you must be present at all team meetings. You may join one team per semester.

Media Team

By Jasmine Lomax (9th Grade)

The Media Team has worked hard in the past couple years in order to present the first Galaxy Explorer online newsletter.  Keep checking the website to see our progress and what's new on the website!!!

For those Galaxy Explorers who want to join or have any questions you can e-mail Adrienne at abarnett@chabotspace.org or you can come to one of our meetings and sign up.

Astronomy Team

Environmental Team

The most popular activities run by the Enviro Team are the Solar Cars and Vacuum Chamber.  Other activities are the Redwood Table, Atmospheric Bottles, and Worms & Composting.

Along with these activities, the Enviro Team members also run Solar Car Challenges for Chabot's visitors as well as a different version for  private birthday parties.  During the duration of the challenge, participants are split into teams where they have 45 minutes to an hour to build a Solar Powered Lego Car.  There are three different challenges, the personal challenge, the solar car race, and the design challenge.  Participants will receive solar bucks which they can trade for prizes at the end of the event.

Speaking of "bucks", the Enviro Team is working on a fundraiser. 
One of the on going fundraisers is recycling; over the year, members collect, and donate plastic bottles, aluminum cans, and used printer cartridges to recycle for money.  The money goes towards any of the team's trips.

In the summer of 2005, the Enviro Team took a day trip to Angel Island to go hiking, and enjoy nature.  In March of 2006, the team went to the Davis Street Transfer Station in San Leandro. The tour was guided by an alumni of the Enviro Team's college intern, Goldie.  In June 2006, the team had an opportunity to go camping at Portola Redwoods State Park. It was a 3-day 2-night trip beginning Friday night when the team headed to the park, and ended late Sunday afternoon after the team ate lunch at the beach, hung out, and drove back to Oakland.

For the 2006-2007 school year, the team is continuing its brainstorming for possible trips to take place.

The Enviro Team is always looking for new members who can contribute their presence and ideas.  For those who are interested in joining or have any questions, don't hesitate to e-mail them to Eric Havel at ehavel@chabotspace.org, or sign up and join the team.

Hope to see you there!

Community Outreach Team By: Connie Phu (11th Grade) and Tiffany Phu (9th Grade) The Community Outreach Team is run by Adrienne Barnett and meets several Wednesdays after school during the school year. The team runs programs at different community partners in Oakland. This year, our community partners are Anna Marie Boys and Girls Club, ASCEND after school program, and the Discovery Center in West Oakland . For the 2006-2007 school year, the themes for the community partners are Hands-On Optics. Every trip the team makes to the community partners has different activities within the overall theme of the year. Each center is visited three Wednesdays during the school year.  The Galaxy Explorers assist the students at the clubs with the activities they bring to them. The first visit will focus on mirrors and kaleidoscopes, the second visit will focus on telescopes, and the third visit will focus on lasers. In addition to these trips to the community partners, Chabot has a community partner day where all the students from these centers are invited to the center for a day of science. These days will happen in December 2006, and May 2007.