October Sky Responce

The movie "October Sky," featuring Jake Gyllenhaal, is based on a true story that happened in Coalwood, West Virginia. John Hickam, the main character, is fascinated by the way rockets work. He goes from creating models from scratch to winning the national science fair in Indianapolis. This inspiring show features how math and science can be used in everyday life. For example, after John and his friends that helped him make the rockets got in trouble for "starting a forest fire" by where one of their boosters landed, they used math to prove that the rocket didn't start the fire. The equation was this:

• (delta)X or S or height = Viyt + 1/2at2


• at the crest, Viy=0, S = Viyt + 1/2at2


• In all, S = 1/2at2

If this doesn't make sense to you, it's OK... the rest of America doesn't know either. This formula states that the rocket would have landed further away from the fire's origin. After hours of searching for their own rocket, they found it lying in a river almost 1/2 mile away from where the other one was found (that booster happened to belong to an airport near by).

Character traits are also an important part of the movie. In our school, we based character education on C.A.R.E.S. (Cooperation, Assertion, Respect, Empathy, and Self-control). Most, if not all of these are shown in the movie. One example is cooperation. If it weren't for the kids working together to reach their goals, they wouldn't have won the national science fair. They worked for hours trying to perfect the correct dimensions of the rocket to make it fly. Teamwork led them to successfully fulfill their dreams. Assertion was also shown in the film. The four friends worked hard, long hours to complete their task. If I were one of them, I would be proud of the things I accomplished over that period of time.

Given these points, it's fair to say that the movie "October Sky" displayed how character, science, and math were put into affect. I understand why this moie earned 3 1/2 out of 4 stars. I encourage you to watch it and be not only enhansed by the facts given, but also by the way everyone teats each other. Thank you for reading this responce. To learn more about the movie, click here.