Galactic Adventure & Star Wars Experiences
The Galactic Adventure Experience
Available Monday–Friday, September 7, 2007–February 7, 2008 and May 5–June 13, 2008—$14 per student; $3 per chaperone.
The Star Wars Galactic Adventure Experience Available Monday–Friday, February 9–May 2, 2008—$17 per student; $10 per chaperone.
Minimum 30 students; maximum 60.
Includes:
World Space Week Special Program
October 4, 5, 9 & 10 Only
$14 per student; $3 per chaperone.
Minimum 30 students; maximum 60.
Celebrate World Space Week, and kick off the school year with a very special program in space science and astro-optics. The package includes general admission, an IMAX or a Planetarium show, plus:
Welcome to the Observatory is an instructive hands-on 40-minute program to explore the science of astro-optics in the Bloom Observatory, home of one of the largest telescopes in the region. Students will get an up-close and in-depth review of what makes telescopes tick. Concepts include reflection and refraction, and energy from space. Suggested follow up activities.
Life in Space is a live theater show for grades 3-8 that demonstrates, with the help of students, the challenges of living and working in the weightless environment. (Note: High school students will hear one of the following lectures or, on October 9 or October 10, attend a Planetarium show.)
Thursday, October 4 Only
Meet Dr. Steven Squyres, the Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy at Cornell University, who has worked extensively at and with NASA. This popular visitor to the Institute served as scientific head of the Mars Exploration Rover Project, overseeing the exploration of the rovers Sprit and Opportunity, which have returned to Earth invaluable data about and stunning images of the Red Planet. Students of all ages will enjoy his presentation.
Friday, October 5 Only
Winston E. Scott
Meet Winston E. Scott, retired NASA astronaut and U.S.
Navy captain. Having logged over 10 million miles in space, including
several long spacewalks from the Endeavor to evaluate techniques
to be used in assembling the International Space Station,
he can share plenty of first-hand experiences with students. Scott
is also a pilot and former university vice president. A man of many
interests, he holds a BA in music, an MS in aeronautical engineering
and a 2nd degree black belt in karate.
Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination
In the Mandell Center
February 9 – May 4, 2008
Could cars that hover above ground be the mass transit of the future? Will we ever have robots like C-3PO in real life? Fantasy and reality join forces in Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination. This is the first exhibition to showcase costumes and props from all six Star Wars films while exploring cutting-edge research and modern technologies that could one day make the fantasy world of Star Wars a reality.
Star Wars: Where Science Meets Imagination gets students absorbed in hands-on experiences to discover how robots and landspeeders exist in the world of Star Wars, and learn about the important roles that imagination and science play in creating increasingly sophisticated real-world technology in areas such as medicine, manufacturing and transportation. In two large Engineering Design labs, students will get to use what they have learned to create and test their own speeders and robots. They can even experience the jump to light-speed in a full-size replica of the cockpit of Episode IV’s Millennium Falcon.
Presented nationally by 
Presented locally by 
The Joel N. Bloom Observatory
Let us introduce your students to a personal aspect of stargazing. A member of the education staff will be on hand to explain how the telescopes work. This observatory is specially equipped for safe daytime viewing, and weather permitting, students may be able to see the Sun, Moon and Venus.
Tuttleman IMAX Theater
Space Station
Starting October 1
Blast off into space with the astronauts and cosmonauts from Kennedy Space Center and Russia’s Baikonur Cosmodrome, and rendezvous at their new home in orbit, 220 miles above the Earth. See full description here.
Spectroscopy Hands-on Workshops
In these hands-on workshops, students will learn to see like an astronomer by building and using their own spectroscope, a simple device that separates light into component colors for study.
Grades 3–5
How do astronomers learn the secrets of the stars? Through the
use of light! Although from far away all stars appear to emit the
same white light, stars actually give off white, red, orange, yellow
and blue light, creating a pattern that contains information about
the star. Students make their own spectroscopes and view these
patterns to learn how the properties of light help us crack open the
secrets of stars.
Grades 6–8
Did you know that stars have fingerprints? The light that
radiates from within a star creates a unique color spectrum,
or “fingerprint,” that we can see using a spectroscope. This
fingerprint gives us distinctive information about the chemical
elements in its source. Students learn how different elements
produce different patterns, and practice using their own
spectroscopes to identify a mystery gas.
Grades 9–12
Astronomers study stars by analyzing waves of electromagnetic
energy that they emit. These waves are found all along the
electromagnetic spectrum—including in the visible region, which is
studied with spectroscopy. Students make their own spectroscopes
and learn how to display and analyze the visible light spectrum,
using various light sources and gas tubes to explore how different
elements create different spectra.
Space Command
Blast off on a voyage of
discovery in this futuristic low-
Earth-orbit research station,
with its 30 interactive bays.
See here for more information.
Presented by Lockheed Martin