A super blue blood moon is a rare occurrence, so when one occurred Jan. 31, Clearview Elementary School used the once-in-a-lifetime event to promote interest in science.

 

Sponsored by the PTA, Clearview hosted Orbit Earth Expo, a space science experience that brought a giant inflatable earth, sun, moon and other planets directly to the school to teach students how the universe works.

 

Throughout the day, each grade was given age-appropriate, individual presentations that taught to Minnesota academic standards. In awe of the models, the students were especially excited when the room went dark, except for one spotlight.

 

During the presentations, students “journeyed” to space to create cycles, systems and relationships between the earth, moon and sun using the scale-sized model inflatables, learning about eclipses, seasons, phases of the moon, day/night cycles, rotation versus revolution, gravity, order of the planets and more.

 

That evening the fun continued with a Science Family Fun Night. Students and their families converged on Clearview for the opportunity to learn and interact with the models by going through seven stations, which included rotating the huge model of earth, revolving the moon around the earth as the earth revolved the sun, and ordering the planets in the earth’s solar system.

 

Families could also watch a video on the solar system and read books about space together.

 

First-grader Farrah Reese, who was affected by Guillian-Barre Syndrome shortly after her first birthday, was at the event selling bracelets to raise money for the Twin Cities Walk & Roll May 19. Reese will be participating in the walk-a-thon, which is being held to support GBS research initiatives. 

 

The interactive science experiences were brought to the school by SparkPoint Innovations, a company that travels to elementary and middle schools around the country delivering astronomy and geology programs designed to help students get excited about space and earth science.