OCESS
Contents
The Name
The acronym for the full name of Spacesim. OCESS stands for Ottawa Carleton Educational Space Simulation. The name was changed from OBESS (Ottawa Board of Education Space Simulation) in 1998; when the Ottawa Board of Education was amalgamated with the Carleton Board of Education in 1998 to form the Otawa-Carleton District School Board, it was decided that the OBESS should change its name. At a lunch-time meeting, there was some name discussion and a vote was taken. It was decided to call the group the "Ottawa-Carleton Educational Space Simulation" (OCESS). The reasoning is that this new name encompasses the new board and keeps "Education" in our name. Furthermore, Spacesim already had a nice logo for the OBESS and designing a new logo was considered to be fairly unimportant; changing only one letter allowed the new logo to be very similar to the old.
Description
The OCESS or "Space Sim" as it is commonly called, is a student run program based at Lisgar Collegiate Institute. Currently run by Admiral Magwood, the OCESS includes members from all grades and is dedicated to educating its members and others about space sciences and space exploration.
Spacesim has traditionally followed The Golden Rule as its motto.
Re-Branding
In the 2001-2002 year, OCESS underwent some rebranding. Efforts were made to change the feeling of the group from a student club over to a non-profit organization. This effort met mixed results, but are most evident in the more professional website and the new logo.
Mission Statement
During the Rebranding, Spacesim picked up the following mission statement:
The Ottawa Carleton Educational Space Simulation is a student-run, non-profit organization geared towards educating youth about space and space science through fun and interactive means.
Current status
Currently, Space Sim is run by Co-commanders under the supervision of Admiral Magwood. The current membership stands at about roughly 20 to 25 members and they have hosted no planetariums to date this year.
Programs
- See Education for main article
Spacesim offers two educational programs - EEP and Planetarium - to educate other students, both within Lisgar and without. These programs have been largely successful in the past, though their demand has been steadily declining due to lack of publicity. For its own members, Spacesim launches one 5-day simulated mission, as well as several smaller "training missions" per year. These, along with the maintanance and preparation activities carried out by all Spacesim members, educates them not only about space, but allows them to both learn and apply scientific concepts. It has been suggested that Spacesim could change its name to "The Spacesim and Engineering Club" without changing any of its inner workings.
Spacesim also offers its Galileo Challenge to students of Lisgar and, since 2005-06, to students from other schools.
Spacesim is looking to restart its Summer Camp program by summer 2006-07. It is looking either at forming a private company or a non-profit approach. Space Sim is also looking, over the course of several years, offer spacesim as a curriculum course, much like Outdoor Education. Both of these proposals are Long-Term Projects and will require a lot of work.
