Natural History Museum's Sky Lab Comes to Lower School
The seed was planted when a third grade intern asked K-3 science teacher Jennifer Hartz for ideas to support the work third graders' study of Harriet Tubman and the Drinking Gourd. "I immediately thought of the Star Lab," Hartz said.
The Star Lab/Cosmodyssey is an inflatable planetarium that is rented out by the Natural History Museum to anyone who is willing to attend a training session. The planetarium come with a special projector and six different drums used to educate students about the apparent movement of the stars in the night sky; the projector rotates to show a year's movement through the solar system and the stars that would be visisble to us here in Cleveland.
Once all the students entered the planetarium and adjusted to the darkness, Ms. Hartz pointed out that the stars, which appear to rotate in the sky around the North Star, vary in color and brightness - and that some are visible all year round, while others appear only for a season. She also shared how different cultures create different constellations and stories depending on what was important to them. "When people didn't have T.V.," she explained, "They could play connect the dots with the stars and make up stories." She ended the session by challenging students to invent their own constellations and stories.
All reports as students were exiting the Star Lab indicated that it was a big hit; "That was SO cool!" exclaimed one kindergartner. Because it was so well-received and worthwhile, lower school science teachers Todd Webster and Jen Hartz hope to integrate this experience more fully into the curriculum, making it an annual event.
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The Star Lab/Cosmodyssey is an inflatable planetarium that is rented out by the Natural History Museum to anyone who is willing to attend a training session. The planetarium come with a special projector and six different drums used to educate students about the apparent movement of the stars in the night sky; the projector rotates to show a year's movement through the solar system and the stars that would be visisble to us here in Cleveland.
Once all the students entered the planetarium and adjusted to the darkness, Ms. Hartz pointed out that the stars, which appear to rotate in the sky around the North Star, vary in color and brightness - and that some are visible all year round, while others appear only for a season. She also shared how different cultures create different constellations and stories depending on what was important to them. "When people didn't have T.V.," she explained, "They could play connect the dots with the stars and make up stories." She ended the session by challenging students to invent their own constellations and stories.
All reports as students were exiting the Star Lab indicated that it was a big hit; "That was SO cool!" exclaimed one kindergartner. Because it was so well-received and worthwhile, lower school science teachers Todd Webster and Jen Hartz hope to integrate this experience more fully into the curriculum, making it an annual event.
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Early Childhood, Lower, and Middle Schools, 5000 Clubside Rd, Lyndhurst, OH 44124
Birchwood School of Hawken, 4400 West 140th Street, Cleveland, OH 44135
Upper School, PO Box 8002 (12465 County Line Rd), Gates Mills, OH 44040
Mastery School of Hawken, 11025 Magnolia Dr, Cleveland, OH 44106
Gries Center, 10823 Magnolia Dr, Cleveland, OH 44106
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