Google Expedition

at GMS Friday

Terri Dawson, Gorham School Department technolgy integrator, announced Tuesday that Gorham Middle School will host the Google Expedition Pioneer Program on Friday, April 29. 

Gorham Middle School students in grades 6, 7, and 8 will experience 3-D virtual field trips that immerse them in environments and bring abstract concepts to life.

Google facilitators will arrive Friday with everything needed to travel such as tablets for teachers, Google Cardboard viewers and phones for every student. Teachers will select an Expedition and the entire class will virtually “leap” to the location as the teacher facilitates the journey and speaks to their own content, as well as what is embedded in the Expedition.  

The trips are collections of virtual reality panoramas, 360-degree photo spheres, 3-D images and video. They include ambient sounds with annotated details of points of interest. Some of the locations are the American Museum of Natural History, the Great Barrier Reef, the White House and the Great Wall of China.

Boston program director

will speak at church

A monthly series, which includes a potluck meal, about combating human trafficking will continue next week at South Gorham Baptist Church.

“Sarah Durfey, founder and director of the Abolitionist Network, a program of the Emmanuel Gospel Center in Boston, will be joining us,” Cindy Elder, a program organizer, announced.   “The Abolitionist Network exists in order to help equip Christian leaders to understand and help abolish the systems of human trafficking.”

The program will follow a potluck meal at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, May 6, at the church, 53 County Road (Route 22), Gorham.

Elder said Durfey is a founding board member of Amirah, a safe home for survivors of human trafficking in the Boston area and a founder of the Massachusetts Coalition to End Human Trafficking.  “Sarah is passionate about fostering collaboration and helping churches and individuals answer the question, “What can we do to end human trafficking?” Elder said.
 
Elder is inviting Christian leaders to attend so they can be prepared to respond safely and effectively, if someone comes to them for help out of a situation of human trafficking.  Those attending are asked to take food to share.

Spring brush disposal

Gorham Public Works Department will accept brush on two Saturdays next month. Town residents can take brush 8 a.m.-noon on May 7 and May 21 to the public works facility, 80 Huston Road. The disposal does not include stumps.

For more information, call 892-9062.
 
U.S. taxpayer debt

The Bureau of the Fiscal Service reported on April 21 that the U.S. public debt was  $19,196,769,313,019.68

Gorham Lions Club hosted a huge number of entries on April 16 for its annual 5K and 10K road races. Peter Downing of Gorham, 35, won the 5K in a time of 18:25. Matthew Morabito of Portland, 24, took the 10K in 39:14. Morabito was followed by Gorham runners Jeremy Earl, second; Mandy Bailey, third; and Thom Courtney, fourth.