Disaster Science
About the Teacher
Mr. Calderon is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin with a bachelors degree in Psychology (Pre-Med) and a Masters degree in counseling from St. Edwards University. He has been a middle school teacher for Pflugerville I.S.D. at Westview Middle School for 7 years. He has taught 6th, 7th, and 8th grade math and science. He has also been a cheerleading coach and a boys soccer coach for at Westview for 4 years. The Westview Middle School Cheerleading team achieved a National Championship in 2010 and a Regional Championship in 2012. The boys soccer team also recently won the district championship for P.I.S.D. in May of 2012. Mr. Calderon is also a GED instructor for Austin Community College where he has personally achieved over 120 graduates from program. Mr. Calderon’s philosophy in teaching and coaching is to create a positive, comfortable environment where students have the ability to learn and excel. He is an avid chess player and always enjoys a quick game to keep his students engaged. During his off time, Mr. Calderon enjoys spending time with his daughters (Victoria -15 and Isabella-7) bike riding, swimming and golfing. As an ongoing project of 6 years, Mr. Calderon has volunteered time to collect blankets and clothing for Austin’s homeless as well as donations for the Boys Scouts Club #2 in his home town of Chihuahua, Mexico. He is excited to join this wonderful organization and looks forward to spending time this summer with his new students.
A note from the teacher & some of the things the campers learned while in camp
Students explored the different types of natural disasters. We went into deep discussions about what are the causing effects of these disasters as well as different signs and safety tips to survive one. Students also saw clips on the projector that showed all the major natural disasters.
Monday – Students began this week by studying plate tectonics who are the reason for continental drift theory as well volcanic activity. Students then began working on their own paper mache volcanoes. Students used used water bottles as the inner part of the volcanoe. Then they made paper mache and began slowly constructing their volcanoes of old newspapers.
Tuesday– Campers continued exploring the world of disasters by building their own earthquake fault out of flour. Students made two separate plates, then covered them with dirt to make them look like real dirt. We then, placed the earthquake models to allow the sun to naturally crack to show a model of the real earthquake.
Wednesday– Campers studied tornadoes. They saw a few clips of the different types of tornadoes such as F1s and F5s. Students then saw the phenomenon of the wind patterns by making tornadoes in a cup. Similar to a flushing toilet, students created current patters then placed food coloring in the center to see how a tornado really moves and actually reaches the ground.
Thursday– Young People continued working on the decoration of the project volcanoes and by painting and placing real debris in the way of the volcano. Young People also studied the causes of tsunamis such as earthquakes or potential nuclear explosions deep in the ocean.
Friday– Campers ended their magnificent week with a real life controlled explosions of their volcanoes by mixing baking soda and vinegar. There were several explosions done by each camper. Each explosion increasingly difficult and more complex.
Campers did an excellent job this week and showed great amounts of maturity as we explored this serious topic.
Click here to download the 2013 YPW Camps Catalog