CHIMACUM — When Chimacum Creek Primary School students arrived at school on Friday they found a pop-up purple planetarium in their school’s gym. The 7-meter dome held a scientific surprise inside for the curious kids.
Principal Kalie Enlow said that throughout the morning, students kept asking, ‘What is that thing being built in our gym?’”
Underwritten by the Peninsula Support Group of the Boeing Bluebills in Port Ludlow, the day-long presentation by the Museum of Flight was designed to support the school’s STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) program.
“Heidi Johnson, one of our first grade teachers, has been working with the Boeing Bluebills and their science initiative for the district for the last year or two,” Enlow said.
“This year, she worked hard to get them here for us. The response has been that the kids are loving it.”
Along with the planetarium were a display of “Gizmos,” flying objects that give students an introduction to flight.
Museum of Flight educators Arthur Bednar and Jemma Hayes held the student’s attention throughout two programs.
“In our mobile planetarium, we project the night sky and the youngest kids watch a video about objects and how the sky looks during different times of the year,” Bednar explained.
“The older students are doing an introduction to astronomy program called, “Under the Night Sky.” They look up to see planets, stars, constellations in our portable universe.”
The Flying Gizmos afternoon school-wide assembly gave students a tour through the history of flight.
“The program begins with insects then goes on to birds, balloons, airplanes, helicopters and rockets,” Bednar said. “We have radio-controlled planes, insects, birds and rockets.
“We fly them around the gym and explain the different forces of flight, like lift, drag, thrust and gravity, and the laws of motion. Hopefully this gets them excited about flying and sparks their interest so maybe they’ll want to learn a little more.”
Robert Reasoner, a retired school superintendent, helped bring the program to the school and believes this type of early exposure to science is important.
“There’s lot of enthusiasm here,” Reasoner said. “We’re trying to help children understand and become interested in space. Hopefully they’ll begin to think about options of what they might do as adults.”
“By the time they finish high school, we’ll probably be traveling to Mars.
“That requires a whole different set of skills and lots of new occupations. Hopefully this will encourage them to take hard courses like math and science rather than avoiding them.”
“I’m convinced these are the skills that kids are going to need in the future.”
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Jefferson County Editor/reporter Jeannie McMacken can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jmcmacken@peninsuladailynews.com.
