Field Trip Show Overviews for Grades 3 and Older
Shows are on Tuesday and Thursday mornings only at 10:00 & 11:30 during the college's fall and spring semesters. Maximum of 72 people per show.
Per the California Department of Public Health K-12 Guidance for the 2022-23 School Year — all students, parents, teachers, adults, etc. are recommended to wear masks while inside the Planetarium.
Please refer to California Content Standards for Earth Science and Physical Science for more information on the standards discussed in the shows.
Show Overviews
Oasis in Space vocabulary list.
You will first go on a live tour of the evening sky with our Planetarium Director, Nick Strobel, pointing out the constellations and planets you will see in this evening's sky. Then you will experience a truly dark night sky and understand how light pollution affects our view of the stars. After the evening sky tour, you will experience the all-dome video called “Oasis In Space.”
A 24-minute all-dome video from Spitz Creative Media (link will appear in a new window), this show takes you on a journey through the solar system to experience the beautiful planets and satellites up close as you search for places with liquid water. You start by seeing how the solar system formed from a gas cloud in our galaxy and then experiencing the early Earth before the oceans formed. In the present day you will explore Earth, with its vast oceans that make life possible.
Then you fly by the other planets and moons one by one in the search for liquid water. Each investigation of a planet is accompanied by a full descriptions of its characteristics, such as atmosphere, temperature, and composition.
Spectacular pictures invite students to draw their own conclusions about the other orbiting bodies in our solar system: is there water out there? Is there life beyond Earth?
Teacher's Guide to Oasis in Space (from Spitz---a 5.7 MB (!) PDF download)
Key Concepts
- Constellations, myths and why constellations appear to move through the sky
- Sun facts
- Sun and planet size comparison (scale model of the solar system)
- A brief description of each of the planets and some of their major features
Standards
Those of Secrets of the Cardboard Rocket, PLUS
- Grade 8: Physical Science- 4a, 4b
- Grade 9: Earth Science- 1a, 1c, 2
Secret of the Cardboard Rocket vocabulary list.
You will first go on a live tour of the evening sky with our Planetarium Director, Nick Strobel, pointing out the constellations and planets you will see in this evening's sky.
Then you will experience a truly dark night sky and understand how light pollution affects our view of the stars.
After the evening sky tour, you will experience the all-dome video called “The Secret of the Cardboard Rocket.” A 40-minute all-dome video from Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City, you will embark on an outstanding adventure as two children spend a night touring the solar system in their cardboard rocket alongside their ship's navigator, an astronomy book.
This show was produced with state-of-the-art 3D animation and 5.1 soundtrack with spectacular effects created at George Lucas' Skywalker Ranch.
Key Concepts
- Constellations, myths and why constellations appear to move through the sky
- Sun facts
- Sun and planet size comparison (scale model of the solar system)
- A brief description of each of the planets and some of their major features
Standards
- Grade 3: Earth Science- 4a, 4d, 4e
- Grade 4: Earth Science- 5a, 5b, 5c
- Grade 8: Physical Science- 4e
You will first go on a live tour of the evening sky with our Planetarium Director, Nick Strobel, pointing out the constellations and planets you will see in this evening's sky. Then you will experience a truly dark night sky and understand how light pollution affects our view of the stars.
After the evening sky tour, you will go on an immersive tour of the Sun and planets (even dwarf planet, Pluto). This 29-minute “home-grown” show is a greatly improved version of the original planetarium's classic “Solar System” show using the 3D models of Starry Night Dome.
Unlike other solar system shows, you will see how the Sun and planets compare to the Earth and also learn about the vast distances between the planets. Near the end of the show, you will take a trip to the next star system to see what the sky would like from there and finally take a trip up out of the Milky Way to see how the solar system compares with a typical galaxy.
Key Concepts
- Constellations, myths and why constellations appear to move through the sky
- Sun facts
- Sun and planet size comparison (scale model of the solar system)
- A brief description of each of the planets and some of their major features
Standards
Those of Secret of the Cardboard Rocket PLUS
- Grade 8: Physical Science- 4c;
- Grades 9-12: Earth Science- 1a, 1c, 1d, 1e, 2a.
You will first go on a live tour of the evening sky with our Planetarium Director, Nick Strobel, pointing out the constellations and planets you will see in this evening's sky. Then you will experience a truly dark night sky and understand how light pollution affects our view of the stars.
After the evening sky tour, you will go on a history of the telescope to the future of astronomy and learn about the properties of light along the way. Produced to engage and appeal to audiences of all ages, "Two Small Pieces of Glass" traces the history of the telescope from Galileo's modifications to a child's spyglass—using two small pieces of glass—to the launch of NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and the future of astronomy. It explores the wonder and discovery made by astronomers through out the last 400 years. Link to more about Two Small Pieces of Glass on the 400 Years of the Telescope website.
Key Concepts
- Constellations, myths and why constellations appear to move through the sky
- History of the development of the telescope and its use
- Types of telescopes
- Powers of telescope
- Analysis of light, spectra, spectroscopy
- Doppler effect
- Discoveries made with telescopes including Milky Way structure, other galaxies, Hubble expansion
- Atmosphere's effect on light from space
- Future designs for telescopes
Standards
- Grade 3:Earth Sciences- 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d, 4e; Physical Sciences- 1a, 2, 2b, 2c, 2d
- Grade 5: Earth Sciences- 5a, b, c
- Grade 6: Earth Sciences- 3a, 3d; 4b
- Grade 7: Physical Sciences- 6a, 6b, 6d, 6e, 6f
- Grade 8: Earth Sciences- 4a, 4b, 4
- Grade 9-12:
You will first go on a live tour of the evening sky with our Planetarium Director, Nick Strobel, pointing out the constellations and planets you will see in this evening's sky. Then you will experience a truly dark night sky and understand how light pollution affects our view of the stars.
After the evening sky tour, you will investigate the boundary between our Solar System and the rest of our galaxy. Designed for audiences with an appreciation for the challenges of space science and a desire to learn more about science research, IBEX: Search for the Edge of the Solar System follows the creation of NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX).
Audiences will get an in-depth look at the mission and how IBEX is collecting high-speed atoms to create a map of our Solar System's boundary.
You will first go on a live tour of the evening sky with our Planetarium Director, Nick Strobel, pointing out the constellations and planets you will see in this evening's sky. Then you will experience a truly dark night sky and understand how light pollution affects our view of the stars.
After the evening sky tour, you will explore how NASA engineers build the amazing ships that take us on journeys across the cosmos.
”From Dream to Discovery” begins with an exploration of the Hubble Space Telescope, with its many intricate parts that must work together to help this observatory achieve great things. From there, we explore the James Webb Space Telescope, currently under testing at NASA. Finally, the show explores the New Horizons mission to Pluto, revealing the engineering challenges the mission has faced in its ten-year headlong rush to a distant fascinating world.
Get Started
Today.
