Mobile planetarium takes Huntington Beach school kids to ‘the outside of the world’
The rain disappeared and the sun shone brightly in Huntington Beach on Friday, Nov. 30. Yet at Oak View Elementary, students spent the morning gazing up at a brilliant night sky.
Via the magic of an inflatable planetarium, thousands of twinkling stars came out in broad daylight. Looking somewhat like a huge octopus, the fantastical dome sat inside the gymnasium – awaiting an ongoing stream of exuberant children.
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Each group traveled through outer space during a 45-minute presentation, as guest instructor Mario Tomic shared fun facts about Jupiter, lunar eclipses and constellations named after mythological characters.
His audience oohed and aahed with every new projected image – whether the view of Earth from a distance or a sped-up cycle through the moon’s phases.
“There are 200 billion stars in our galaxy,” Tomic said. “The sun is just one of them.” What’s more, he added, this galaxy is just one of 100 billion.
“Who here wants to be a scientist?” he asked. “We need a new generation of scientists to develop a telescope to see faraway planets.”
Tomic taught the budding astronomers how to locate Polaris – explaining that unlike other stars, the North Star remains visually fixed from humans’ vantage point. Then he invited a volunteer to identify Polaris at the tip of the Little Dipper using his laser light. Impressively, one youngster after another succeeded.
With a diameter of 36 feet and a height of 15 feet, the SkyDome Planetarium can accommodate 90 people per performance. Produced by Michigan-based Mobile Ed, the pop-up planetariums visit schools around the country.
Principal Jenna Landero, new to Oak View this year, has made it her mission to bring students – many of whom live in low-income homes – fun and educational experiences at least once a month.
“So many of our kids get bogged down in intervention programs that they rarely have exposure to special academic events like this,” Landero said.
Celebrating her 40th birthday, Landero confessed that the SkyDome was a gift to herself, as well. Just an hour before, colleagues surprised her with a life-size cutout of Tom Petty, her personal fave. “He’s the soundtrack of my life,” she said.
Once they were back outside the dome, students buzzed with excitement.
Erick Torres approached Tomic with a serious expression and an urgent inquiry. “Are there any other planets out there people can live on?” the third-grader wondered.
Fourth-grader Brianna Medina felt like she had just returned from a “cool adventure.”
“It was really amazing,” she said, “to see the outside of the world.”