Media representatives are invited to experience the virtual night sky in a fulldome digital video portable planetarium, part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, when it visits local students next week.
Media representatives are invited to experience the virtual night sky in a fulldome digital video portable planetarium, part of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Morehead Planetarium and Science Center, when it visits local students next week.
Note: Because it is necessary to maintain a “night sky” level of darkness within the planetarium dome, flash photographs may be taken only before or after the planetarium program.
Vance County
Carver Elementary School
**This visit will take place at Aycock Recreational Center,
305 Carey Chapel Road, Henderson.**
Wednesday (Jan. 18)
11 a.m., noon and 1:30 p.m.
In the multimedia planetarium show “Magic Tree House Space Mission,” siblings Jack and Annie guide students through a quest to solve a mysterious riddle. They meet an astronaut, an astronomer and an author … and travel into outer space!
Wayne County
Meadow Lane Elementary School
3500 E. Ash St., Goldsboro
Thursday (Jan. 19)
9:30 a.m.
This class is scheduled to see two planetarium shows consecutively:
In the multimedia planetarium show “Galileo: The Power of the Telescope,” students journey back in time to Pisa, Italy, to witness Galileo's earliest experiments with gravity and the laws of motion, share his greatest discoveries and experience how one man can shape the future of science.
In the multimedia planetarium show “Solar System Odyssey," students follow astronaut Jack Larson on a mission to discover a new home for humans to colonize. This character-driven adventure is set in the future, in a time when humans have depleted the resources of their home planet.
Grantham School
174 Grantham School Road, Goldsboro
Friday (Jan. 20)
9:30 a.m.
Students will view “Solar System Odyssey," described above.
10:30 a.m., noon and 1 p.m.
In the multimedia planetarium show “Wildest Weather in the Solar System,” students experience the most beautiful, powerful and astonishing weather on other planets — 1,200 mile-per-hour winds, lightning that is 10,000 times stronger than any on Earth, five-mile-high dust storms and more.
The PLANETS (Portable Learning for All North Carolina’s Elementary Teachers and Students) Portable Planetarium Program is a science education outreach effort of Morehead Planetarium and Science Center at UNC-Chapel Hill.
PLANETS delivers a traditional planetarium experience directly to elementary schools across North Carolina. PLANETS planetarium shows and classroom activities are standards-based and interdisciplinary so teachers can take full advantage of this unique science experience. The PLANETS dome stretches 20 feet in diameter and uses cutting-edge digital technology to reach students who may not otherwise encounter Morehead’s informal science education.
The PLANETS program was created in 2009 and receives support from N.C. Space Grant, with additional funding from the Chatham Foundation and the University of North Carolina Provost Office.
PLANETS website: www.moreheadplanetarium.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=page&filename=PLANETS_overview.html
PLANETS media contact: Karen Kornegay, (919) 843-7952, kck@unc.edu
News Services contact: Susan Hudson, (919) 962-8415, susan_hudson@unc.edu