1836 Texas and the Runaway Scrape

Glenn Camp shared some stories about Texian families as Santa Anna started his march across Texas. The mass evacuations of those families, leaving everything behind, was known as the Runaway Scrape. These stories provided an interesting discussion of another piece of the Texas Revolution.

You can view Glenn's presentation here.

Culture of Volunteerism

We had an interesting discussion with Buck Buchanan, CyFair Geography professor, as he discussed his recent sabbatical. Buck visited as many of the U.S. National Marine Sanctuaries as he could to determine their environmental state and discover the work of the volunteers at the various sites. The ocean gives us many clues as to the state of our environment and we discussed many of those aspects.

You can view Buck's presentation here.

Mini-Gourd Cat Ornament

We are getting in the mood for Halloween with our mini-gourd cat ornaments. Look at some of the fun we had below with Linda Gabrielson.

Critical Thinking in the 21st Century

CyFair English Professor Kim Mori presented us with the steps that can help us sift through the barrage of information we receive and draw and evidence-based conclusion. By talking through a case study, we were able to learn how to ask the right questions, challenge assumptions and examine the evidence. Great discussion by all.


You can view Kim's presentation here.
Her notes are here.

What is Acupuncture?

Baisong Zhong  L.Ac, Ph.D, MD (China) gave an informative presentation about the evolution, theory behind and benefits of acupuncture. His presentation is attached for your review, here.

Mind Blowing Balloon Twisting

What a fun class. Melo Pisha, aka Gumdrop, showed us how to make dogs, cats, swords, hats, and some unidentified balloon things in this balloon twisting class. See some of the pictures below.

You can view balloon twisting "how tos" here.
Melo suggests using quality latex balloons, typical size 260 (2"x60") for twisting. Examples here.
In a pinch, Party City will do. And, do not forget a pump... trust me!

Monster Face Yard Art

We started the Halloween season with Linda Gabrielson and our "scary" yard art. The final product was up to our imaginations with lots of pieces and parts to pick from to make our monster faces. See some of our work below.

Intro to ALL and CyFair Campus

Cheryl LeJune presented an overview of the ALL program at CyFair College. We talked about communication through Remind and the web page (here), how to get your logon and email for the college, learned about the library and the Arts programs as well as various volunteer opportunities across the campus.

You can view Cheryl's presentation here.

What is Cy-Hope?

Linda Rucker of Cy-Hope gave us a really informative overview of what the organization does for our own CyFair community. By helping children at risk with food, counseling, mentors, sports, music and much more, Cy-Hope's goal of making life better for the kids in our community can come true. Cy-Hope is always looking for volunteers in many capacities as well as operating the Hope Chest to raise funds for the organization.

You can view Linda's presentation here.
For more information regarding Cy-Hope, click http://www.cy-hope.org/