{"id":28892,"date":"2020-07-21T10:00:57","date_gmt":"2020-07-21T15:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/?p=28892"},"modified":"2020-07-21T09:50:35","modified_gmt":"2020-07-21T14:50:35","slug":"apsu-governors-school-for-computational-physics-uses-old-school-tech-telegrams-to-reach-out-to-homebound-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/2020\/07\/21\/apsu-governors-school-for-computational-physics-uses-old-school-tech-telegrams-to-reach-out-to-homebound-students\/","title":{"rendered":"APSU Governor\u2019s School for Computational Physics uses old school tech, telegrams, to reach out to homebound students"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AustinClarksville, TN<\/strong> – Earlier this summer, students at the Austin Peay State University (APSU) Governor\u2019s School for Computational Physics got a special surprise delivered to their front doors: a telegram from the school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted the students to have a memento of the weirdest Governor\u2019s School ever,\u201d said Bryan Gaither, Austin Peay State University\u2019s professional mad scientist. <\/p>\n

\"One<\/a>

One of the telegrams sent to students. (APSU)<\/p><\/div>\n

<\/p>\n

This year\u2019s Governor\u2019s School \u2013 normally a three-week residential college experience where high-achieving high school students can earn college credit and get a preview of prospective career paths \u2013 was forced online because of the COVID-19 Coronavirus pandemic. <\/p>\n

Gaither normally orchestrates several science demonstrations during the school. He had to take all those demonstrations online. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn an effort to make this year\u2019s virtual Governor\u2019s School as exciting and fun as possible, I went through many, many ideas to entertain our students,\u201d he said. \u201cThese are 36 of the most gifted students in the state of Tennessee and they chose to sit through three weeks of virtual physics and math lectures, laboratory exercises, and a few uniquely awesome science demonstrations.\u201d <\/p>\n

You can read about the Zoom demos here<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But Gaither also wanted to give the students something more tangible.<\/p>\n

Gaither came across the ideas for the telegrams at the beginning of the pandemic lockdown. <\/p>\n

\u201cI spent a long night on the internet looking for fun things to cheer up colleagues that were under a huge amount of stress due to the speed at which we were required to transition online last semester,\u201d he said. \u201cI eventually stumbled onto the website for International Telegram Company<\/a>, who took over the original Western Union Telex network in 2006. <\/p>\n

\u201cYes, telegrams still exist, and they are certified legal documents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaither sent telegrams to friends \u201cto bring a little joy during some rough times.\u201d He enjoyed their response so much that he started tinkering with the idea of sending telegrams to the Governor\u2019s School students across the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cI worked with International Telegram for about two weeks to get the price point just right to send 36 certified and comical telegrams safely to their homes,\u201d Gaither said. \u201cI know a few of the students got a good laugh out of it.\u201d <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[470center]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s what the telegrams said:<\/p>\n

\u201cDid you know telegrams were still a thing? \u2013 <\/p>\n

\u201cThey are. \u2013<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease accept this telegram as a memento of the weirdest Governor\u2019s School ever. \u2013 <\/p>\n

\u201cSo sad you are not able to join us on campus at Austin Peay. \u2013<\/p>\n

\u201cSo happy to have you with us virtually. \u2013<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will do much to make this summer memorable. \u2013<\/p>\n

\u201c[INSERT EXPLOSION] \u2013<\/p>\n

\u201cYour dedicated regional Professional Mad Scientist. \u2013<\/p>\n

\u201cBryan W. Gaither \u2013 <\/p>\n

\u201c[TELEGRAM END]\u201d <\/p>\n

To learn more about the Governor\u2019s School for Computational Physics, go to https:\/\/apsu.edu\/governors-school\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clarksville, TN – Earlier this summer, students at the Austin Peay State University (APSU) Governor\u2019s School for Computational Physics got a special surprise delivered to their front doors: a telegram from the school. \u201cI wanted the students to have a memento of the weirdest Governor\u2019s School ever,\u201d said Bryan Gaither, Austin Peay State University\u2019s professional […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[23,32180,262,16712,512,825,34581,34634,4445,34642,15993,1758],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4xGYI-7w0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28892"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28892"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28892\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28893,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28892\/revisions\/28893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.discoverclarksville.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}