Holiday Recess Week

We here at the Science Museum of Long Island just enjoyed an amazing week of holiday programs that occurred from February 17^th to the 21^st. One of the highlights of my week was during out “Fly Me to the Moon” program. Throughout the day we taught about outer space. The kids even made their very own film canister rockets. But one of the best reactions I’ve ever received in a class was during our Planet Walk.

In our planet walk we used flags to represent each planet and we used steps to represent their distance from the sun. In this demonstration the kids see that the first few planets (Mercury, Venus, Earth and Mars) are very close to the sun. For example, the distance between the Sun and Mercury is only one step. Then they see that the outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) are much farther away by comparison. At least, that’s the message we are trying to convey, but sometimes kids don’t get that sense of awe that we’re hoping for. Until now.

 After we had finished the fifty or so steps from Saturn to Uranus we turned around to see just how far away we were from the sun. Now, if you’ve never seen the lights flip on in a child’s eyes, wait for, because it will astound you. There was complete silence as we turned to see that the sun was over a hundred feet away. But in the midst of that silence I heard one girl give a low, barely audible, “Woah.”

This week of holiday programs was wonderful, and I am very much looking forward to the next one which will be occurring from April 14^th to the 18^th. We are going to be covering some awesome topics, including things like, Survivor, Buried Treasure, and Egg Stravaganza! It should be a great week, so sign up today!

-Owen 

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