October Sky

Recently I have watched the movie October Sky in school. In this movie a poor boy- Homer- lived in a small mining town. The only way to get out of the town was to get a football scholarship and Homer was not very good at football. However, Homer has bigger plans and ambitions than working in the mines for the rest of his life. After seeing Sputnik shoot across the sky, Homer gets interested in rocket building and wins a scholarship based on academic achievement against the odds. He makes a future for himself and accomplishes his goal of helping make full sized rockets when he joined the N.A.S.A. program. There were many connections to science and math in this intriguing movie. Homer must use a complicated series of science and math to build his rockets and make sure that they shoot into the air not fall back down or explode. He was inspired to start building these rockets when the Russians built the Sputnik satellite and Homer saw it. Homer did not want to end up working in the family business, coal mining, because of health dangers such as the risks of cancer, black lung disease, and accidents. At first authorities thought that one of his rockets caused a forest fire but by making a mathematical equation Homer realized that his rocket could not have landed where the authorities said it did and he found it sitting in a nearby stream, proving that his rocket in fact, did not start the forest fire. Homer entered his rocket in a science fair and he won, earning himself a scholarship so that he could go to collage. However, it was not just science and math that were demonstrated in this movie, there were many displays of character education. It took cooperation for Homer and his friends to become a rocket building team. It was very assertive of Homer's mother to stand up to her husband when he did not support Homer's decision to build rockets. Even though his father did not respect Homer's decision to build rockets, Homer was always very respectful to his father and showed a lot of self-control. Homer's father only respected Homer when he was working in the mines. Homer showed empathy towards his teacher when he found out about her illness. Homer was a kind person who had a dream and was determined to persevered to the end until he accomplished that dream. Personally, I thought that October Sky is a good movie and that Homer is an ideal example of if you follow your dream and try hard you can accomplish your goals.