Wayne Independent - Honesdale, PA
  • Discovery Day focuses on space

  • Canaan Christian Academy recently held its annual Discovery Day and the theme was space.
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    Students in grades Kindergarten through sixth took part in Discovery Day. There were also 24 home schooled students who participated as guests. Sarah Tarrell and Jessica Brown were the Discovery Day Coordinators.
    Throughout the day there were different areas of space for students to learn about and they rotated through each one in groups. They included a rocket room, a court room scene where the students debated if Pluto is a planet, a moon room, a video about an astronaut and even a planetarium.
    “Each year there's a different theme,” said Tarrell. “Next year will be around the world.”
    In one of the rooms there were two cardboard spaceships that were decorated by students.
    “Each grade was given a section to decorate,” she said.
    There was also a planet contest that would include a winner from each grade.
    “They could use one of the actual planets or they could make up their own planet,” Tarrell stated. “I'm amazed with the creativity of the students.”
    In the moon room students learned about the sun, moon and stars. They also got to draw their own constellation, which were covered with a special glue that would let them glow in the dark. They even had the opportunity to step into moon shoes.
    The inflatable Starlab planetarium was provided by Abrams Planetarium, located in Honesdale. Joseph Sladicka, a former Wayne Highlands School District science teacher, runs an assembly presentation called Stars in Your School. He talked to the students for a little while and then they went inside the planetarium, which rises to the height of 14 feet and requires an indoor area 28' x 28'.
    It is a “tour of the night sky” and uses a 3,000 star projection cylinder and a special projection cylinder that shows in color the outlines of the constellations. Topics can include the identification of constellations, prominent stars, the location of planets, the moon's phases and location, the lunar eclipse, Greek mythology and/or native American stories, locating Polaris, cardinal directions, calendar in the sky, and the significance of the color of stars and tools available to the students for enjoying the night sky.
    At the end of the day students got to see a rocket launch.
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