by Nathalie Martimbeau
The new school year is bringing us more astronomy activities, and especially some for school kids to enjoy. Here are some activities/events that the planetaria around the nation have to offer.
The International Space Station Trailer Exhibit will be at the H. R. MacMillan Space Centre from September 20th to October 6th. The exhibit, which include a variety of interactive displays set in an authentic Space Station environment will be supplemented by additional displays featuring Canadian contributions to the ISS program. In particular the Canadarm 2 and Mobile Base System will be featured, along with Canadian astronauts. Several thousand school children are expected to tour the exhibit as part of their school field trip program at the Space Centre. For further information visit:
http://www.hrmacmillanspacecentre.com/spec.htm#iss
The Calgary Science Centre has a busy autumn planned, ending what promises to be the best year yet for attendance. During the first week of October, the Centre hosts Calgary's first large format film festival, as part of a citywide Calgary International Film Festival. Titles screened include Jane Goodall's Wild Chimpanzees, and Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure, an IMAX documentary that recreates Shackleton's 1914 expedition that became one of the great survival stories of all time. Also on the bill is Solar Max, about the Sun and its effect on Earth. Solar Max features amazing imagery from SOHO converted into the IMAX film format. A new children's show about Halloween also opens in October. This multimedia program produced by the Centre's staff uses the holiday to explain astronomical concepts such as constellations and moon phases. A new travelling exhibit for kids featuring the popular KNEX building system also rolls into the Science Centre in October. The Centre's popular program of free Friday Night Stargazing resumes in the fall, with the Centre's rooftop telescopes staffed by volunteers from the Calgary Centre of the RASC.
Starting on September 30th, the Planétarium de Montréal present a new school show (Preschool 4-5 years old, Elementary cycle 1) entitled Little Bear's Wonderful Journey: While she was sleeping in her bed one night, Ursa Minor, The Little Bear, fell gently to Earth, as lightly as a feather. Along with the Planetarium guide, and with help from the Moon, Jupiter and Saturn, the young audience will guide her back to her place in the sky, next to her mother, Ursa Major, the Great Bear. It's a fun story, with songs and discoveries, as children learn about the daytime and nighttime skies. This new show will also be featured Saturday and Sunday mornings starting 28 September.
Production work has started for a show called Mysteries of Jupiter to be featured in March 2003. It will focus on the results of the Galileo spacecraft visit to Jupiter and it's satellites. In May, a new evening show entitled Night Sky will present the current seasonal sky with the upcoming astronomical events, real-time navigation on the internet and a question-and-answer period with the public.
On the outreach side, the Solar System Exploration travelling case is starting its 5th year: all cases are booked until mid-October. The travelling case on the Moon Exploration will be available (in French only) starting January 2003 - the teacher's guide are being completed. Finally the Mars Exploration travelling case had a trial run last May, and we decided to focus on the robotic activities, which were a real success with the students. Concurrently, we continue to make the curriculum available to the teachers, both in French and in English, via the link:
Since 1997 (or about that time) the Planétarium de Montréal has been working on a major plan to re-build from scratch and move to a new location. The provincial and federal governments have manifested great interest in this new project. Currently, there has been no definite announcement for the move, but this would be very welcomed: the facility was opened in 1966 and everything needs re-vamping. More to come….
Erratum for the June article: The McLaughlin Planetarium was not located at the Ontario Science Centre but at the Royal Ontario Museum. Thanks to George Wurtak who pointed this out to me. My apologies to both the OSC & ROM for the mixup.
I would like to thank the following people for their contribution to this issue's column: Pierre Chastenay (Planétarium de Montréal), John Dickenson (MacMillan Space Science Centre) and Alan Dyer (Calgary Science Centre).