Astronomy Adventure 2

It is hard to believe this week is over! We have spent 5 exciting days exploring various topics in Astronomy, from comets to constellations.

On Monday, we discussed galaxies, black holes and craters. We talked about galactic structures and what galaxies are made of, and then made our own galaxy montages by coloring coffee filters, dripping water on them to create a swirly galactic effect, and then cutting them up into different galaxies. We talked about some black hole myths, such as "You can see a black hole" and "Black holes lead to other places." We then made craters by dropping sports balls into bins of sugar.

Turner's group making their craters.

Catalina, Lucas and Nolan making their galaxies.

On Tuesday, we learned about different types of star classifications. For example, red stars are the oldest, largest and coldest while blue stars are the youngest and hottest.We made constellation cups by puncturing holes in the bottom of paper cups in the shapes of different constellations. We then shined a flashlight through them so the constellations were projected onto a wall. We also talked about some constellation stories and did an activity to investigate if all stars are like the sun.

Turner's group playing a game.

On Wednesday, we went to the Planetarium where we learned about the planets. We also created our own creatures from other planets!

Eve wearing her astronaut helmet!

On Thursday, we had a space food presentation where we learned about and saw some different kinds of food that astronauts eat in space. We even got to taste some! We also made space helmets out of paper bags and red cling wrap. We even made some space belts to hold our gadgets. After that, we created secret messages that we could only read through our space helmet.

Rachel painting her comet!

On Friday, we saw another Planetarium Show, Cosmic Colors, and learned about how things travel through our universe. The older campers saw a comet demonstration where a comet was made out of dry ice, sand and water. This simulated the journey of a comet as it turns directly from a solid to a gas. The younger campers made their own comets.

Laila with her comet!

Our counselors leading the comet demonstration.

Our comet!