In the Camp Innovate science room, you might have curiously questioned what the meaning was behind all the rows of toilet paper on the floor. Looking a bit closer, you would see the graphic images of the sun and all the planets spread across the floor. Science teacher Jessi Hampton referenced the board explaining the distances between the sun and planets were proportionally laid out by the toilet paper squares. For example, Mercury was only one square away from the sun and on the opposite end, Neptune was 76 toilet paper squares away from the sun.
Hampton said a visual scale of how far the planet is from the sun can give a unique perspective. Ms. Hampton asked thoughtful questions as the students studied the lines of toilet paper on the floor. “Which two are the farthest from the solar system?” “Which planet is closest to Earth?” “Look at how much closer the first four planets are to the sun than the other planets,” said Hampton.
Each day, the students have been learning interesting facts about space. During the first two days, they explored the galaxy and what a Starshade is and how it works. The students attempted a challenging project developed by NASA on how to create a Starshade. If someone would say, “this is hard,” Hampton would smile and say, “Do you think NASA gave up when the challenge became hard?” It was a great growing experience.
On the other side of the board, constellations were sketched out and discussed. Students created a Starfinder to take home to help find the constellations in the sky on a clear night in June. Yet to come, students will get to build and launch an asteroid and for the final day, they will build a device to break the asteroid.
This class was clearly out of this world!
