Space Dome! 7.3.24

This morning Giant and Duckling class had an exciting visit to the science dome at the village hall.

Once inside the dome Neil talked to us about space, planets, stars, astronauts, the space station and he also told us lots of other interesting facts.

We learnt that astronaut means star sailor!
When astronauts are in space they float because there is less gravity than on Earth.
When astronauts are standing on the moon they can hold out their hand, stick out their thumb, close one eye and cover up earth because it’s so far away! It actually takes astronauts 3 days to get to the moon from Earth!
We looked at pictures of Earth taken from a satellite. We zoomed in on the picture so we could see what England and Dorset look like from space.
If we look at the moon when it’s dark at night- the light patches we can see are the mountains and the dark patches are flat parts of the moon.
We also learnt that the International Space Station is where astronauts go to live when they are doing experiments to find out more about planets and outer space. The ISS travels so fast it only takes 1 1/2 hrs to travel the whole way around Earth! If we are lucky and it’s a clear night- we might even catch a glimpse of it’s flashing light as it travels over us! Neil told us that there is going to be a new space station built that will travel around the moon.

A very big thank you to FOCAS who very generously funded the science dome for us all to enjoy. It was a very inspiring morning and got the children even more excited about learning about space!