The CMSEC offers A.M. and P.M. Field Trips. Your choices are outlined:
• P.M. Field Trip Option 1: Startanytime between 2:00 and 4:30 P.M. Program length - 2 hours. Simulator Only. No class or Starlab.
• P.M. Field Trip Option2: Start anytime between 2:00 and 4:30 P.M. Program length - 4 hours. The entire program. This program includes a space science lesson,the Starlab Inflatable Planetarium, and nearly two hours in one of ourfive simulators. We can take one or two classes per day.
The Space Center's curriculum is intended for teacher use. These materials contain all pre and post visit materials and activities to prepare your class for their Space Center experience. The 2008-2009 School Year Teacher Resources, Field Trip Day Planner, and Pre-Visit Curriculum are below. New this year - Teachers may choose the mission for your class. Your options are below. Please email your choice to the Center one week before your arrival (
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The Starlab is a valuable teaching tool to teach astronomy and space science. The Space Center's portable Starlab Planetariums are available for 30 minute customized planetarium shows. Tell our instructors your interests and objectives and they will prepare a show to meet your needs, or you may choose from our prepared school presentations. Call or Email us for available program times and prices.
Evening Education
Join other students in exploration basic concepts of astronomy and physics. You will learn about the International Space Station, rocketry, the Space Shuttle, strange members of our solar system, and deep space astronomy. Other classes include aviation, geology and nuclear science. Many classes fulfill Boy Scout Merit Badge requirements. Please visit the Edventures section of our web site for further information and registration materials. Registration begins every year in the middle of September.
Computer Classes
At the Space Center, we feel that technology is a vital component of education. The Space Center's Programming Classes fulfill this philosophy. Our programming classes have a two-fold mission. The first mission is to provide information to the public in basic Computer Programming. This is fulfilled with our publicly offered computer programming classes. This class focuses primarily on fundamental programming techniques including logic flow, variables, and basic programming mathematics. Combining simple in-class projects (Such as Pac-Man, Battleship, or LightCycle) and Cocoa, the Space Center's official programming language, (The Apple Computer Language). Students move from the beginning steps of product design to the end of the class with deployment and presentation. Many students enter this class with no prior programming knowledge and leave capable of producing simple yet powerful software.
Students interested in taking classes are given the option to join the Space Center's Volunteering Organization and begin working towards membership in the student operated Programming Guild. This group and it's classes fulfill the second mission of our Programming Classes: producing all of the Space Center's video, animation, computer programming, networking, special effects, and other high-tech top-secret projects. If you have ever wanted to get a jump-start in technology, computers, or graphic arts, the Programming Guild is for you.
Contact the Space Center for more information on these exciting programs.
A Word from Aleta Clegg, Curriculum Specialist
The Christa McAuliffe Space Education Center has one mission, to open eyes to the wonders of space. The five starship simulators at our center usually take center stage. What many teachers and patrons don't realize is that our two planetarium systems and our classroom are just as important to us. It's easy to catch a child's imagination with an alien encounter in a starship, it's much more difficult with a lesson.
As part of Alpine School District, we offer field trips to fifth and sixth grade classes September through May. Each field trip consists of a flight in one of our simulators, a planetarium show, and a multimedia science presentation. Unlike a normal classroom, our objective is to raise as many questions as we can. We want the students to leave unsatisfied, their curiosity aroused. We want them to spend time looking for answers, discovering the wonders of space and physics. Last year our topic was "The Life and Death of a Star (not the Hollywood kind)." Other years we have taught the nature of light (electromagnetic spectrum), gravity, the history of astronomy, and the search for extraterrestrial life. Our planetarium shows focus not just on basic constellations, but on the science of the stars themselves and the mythology of the night sky. Many of the children in our programs have no idea that there are "pictures" in the sky until we point them out. The best feedback we can get is to hear a child whispering, "Can you see that? Right there! That is so cool!"
We also offer five different evening classes for children ages 10-16. The topics include basic astronomy, space exploration, nuclear science, aviation, and planetary geology. Each of these classes doubles as a Boy Scout Merit Badge class, although we don't limit our enrollment to scouts. Each year we teach an average of 120 children in these classes.
Our program is run mostly by volunteers. We have a handful of part time staff who are paid, but the majority of our staff are teenage volunteers. Part of our mission is to mentor them, to teach them not just space science but life skills. We have several volunteers who have learned our planetarium system, not because they were required to but because they wanted to learn. Many of our volunteers develop a lifelong love of astronomy. Many of them express a desire to teach, to work with children in their careers. We touch the lives of those who volunteer as well as those who attend.
We average over 400 children a week in our field trip program. We have over 2,200 children attend our summer programs. We see at least one Cub Scout Pack every month for our special Cub Scout planetarium presentation. Last year alone we reached over 18,000 people with our programs.
True to our namesake, Christa McAuliffe, and in honor of her memory, we touch the future, we teach.