Listed below is a brief description of each elementary (PK-5) in-person field trip being offered at the Howard B. Owens Science Center. Field trip descriptions are listed by first semester and second semester including the grade level(s) and brief summary.
Grade K—Animal Adventures: What Animals Need to Live: Join the adventure in our special Animal Exhibit room for a special adventure with our Owens animal friends. Students will observe live animals and explore what they need to survive while participating in several hands-on activities.
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Grade 1—Robo Wunderkind :Build,Test and Code Robots: Let’s build, code and test fabulous Robo Wunderkind robots to perform science mission tasks.
Visiting First Grade students will be introduced to Robo Wunderkind robot parts and will work in teams of four to decide which Robo Wunderkind robot design is best to build to complete the instructor’s specified science mission task. After the teams have followed diagrams to build their robots they will use symbolic picture iPad Apps to test and code their robots to implement the stated robotic science mission task. Visiting student teams will share and compare their robot selection mission results. Students will also be introduced to how robots are being used to explore the planet Mars.
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Grade 1—Science Quest: Visiting first graders role-play as detectives in this Life-Science program! We begin the journey by investigating plants, animals and outdoor sounds as we head to our new outdoor classroom. Closer examinations extend to our room stations, where teams enjoy the wonder of timed, ‘live’ stations.
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Grade 2—Oasis in Space (Planetarium): Oasis in Space is a planetarium fulldome program which takes us on a journey through space. Starting with the formation of our solar system, the program takes us on an exploration to search for water on worlds other than our earth. From planets to moons to asteroids, we look for the necessary ingredient of life, recording data as we explore. After journeying through our cosmic neighborhood, we learn just how unique our home planet truly is.
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Grade 3—Magic Treehouse (Planetarium): Join Magic Tree House siblings Jack and Annie as they embark on a unique space mission assigned by the mysterious "M"! Along the way, help them uncover the answers to fascinating questions about space, investigate claims, and explore the climates of other planets throughout our solar system.
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Grade 3 & 4—Ozobot Evo Computer Science Robotics: During this very fun program, students will learn how to code a “smart” Ozobot EVO robot to program it to perform grade level student choice visual coding challenges. Students then learn how to use an OzoBlockly Block Coding Editor to create and run their own Ozobot EVO programming scripts.
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Grade 3 & 4—What's in a Smile? (An Introduction to AI): Let's discover how technology sees the world through the “eyes” of a computer. As we learn about facial recognition, bias, and AI, we'll switch between activities with and without technology. We'll use the Scratch coding platform and code fun programs that can recognize a smile. You don't need any coding experience to do well!
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Grade 4—Sensational: In this lesson, fourth grade students get excited about engaging in learning while using toys! Our selected science filled toys help them identify energy transferred through sound, light, heat and electrical objects! Teachers return to schools with take-away-student stations to continue the experience!
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Grade 4—"Simply Shocking!" Electricity Program: In this incredibly fun program,visiting fourth grade students will help the Owens Science Center instructor investigate why people get shocked, what static electricity is, that electrostatic fields do indeed exist, how objects get charged and how to use electricity safely and benefit society.
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Grade 4—Making Sense with micro:bits: Combine your maker mindset with coding and sensors. Students use block code, micro:bits and their creativity to explore possible solutions to a variety of challenges that incorporate sensors such as temperature, light, accelerometer and touch.
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Grade 4 & 5—Sensible Design: Students put their lab skills to work during this field trip exploring invertebrates responses to a variety of stimuli (light, temperature, moisture). They modify an existing apparatus to meet the criteria and then conduct an investigation. Students use a model to describe that animals receive different types of information through their senses, process the information in their brain, and respond to the information in different ways.
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Grades 5—Skywatchers of PGCPS (Planetarium): Discover how astronomers use patterns in the sky to understand our place in space and predict future celestial events. Using the planetarium as a model of the universe, students will explore the scale of the Earth-Moon system, investigate why some stars appear brighter than others, track the seasonal movement of constellations, and uncover how the night sky changes over time. Along the way, they'll learn how centuries of observations allow us to predict the motions of stars and planets—and even tell time using the stars themselves.
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Grade PreK—Sammy’s Star Stories (Planetarium): Learn about the sky with our favorite planetarium arachnid: Sammy! Sammy will teach us how to transform the stars into shapes and pictures, telling stories along the way!
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Grade K—Star Safari (Planetarium): Imagine a safari where the wild animals aren't hiding in the bushes, they’re shining in the night sky! In this interactive space adventure, students become cosmic explorers tasked with tracking down celestial creatures. From farm favorites and deep-sea dwellers to mythical beasts of fantasy, students will team up to "collect" constellations hidden in the stars. The adventure concludes with hands-on center activities, where young astronomers craft custom headbands and map out their very own starry creations!
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Grade 1—Brighten Your Corner: First grade students sharpen their cause and effect skills as they engage in the science wonder of: light and sound investigations, shadow making, color mixing, object sorting - with science terms that distinguish how much light passes through items, testing a strange instrument and later return to their school base with materials to make a music box all-their-own!
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Grade 1—Moon Adventures: Students become junior Artemis recruits training to help future astronauts return to the Moon. Their mission: observe, record, and understand how the Moon changes over time, then “travel” to the Moon in the planetarium to explore its surface and decide what astronauts would need to survive and work there.
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Grade 2—Buildy Bots and More: Second grade students have loved engaging in this popular, team building, unplugged computer science and engineering field trip visit! Students will problem solve, construct simple structures, sync Bot to a controller by following sequential steps and take their Bot on a road trip! Book titles are shared in the Pre-Visit packet and requested to be read before scheduled visits. Join us!
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Grade 2—Quest ² : Second graders students visiting this program work non-stop in small groups to manipulate stations; use tools to observe far away, as well as up close habitats; then, compare the diversity of habitats found in and around our new outdoor classroom, while identifying specific items.
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Grade 2—You Can “Bee” a Coder and a Pollinator: Students are exposed to computation thinking with a mixture of story telling and unplugged activities using a "Bee Bot" robot. Then students apply their coding skills with the Bot to explore pollinators.
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Grade 3—Buildy Bots and More: Your third graders will be thrilled to participate in this computer science unplugged program, offered for the first time this year! Students warm up their team building skills as they engage in a engineering exercise, Later, teams code, sync and manipulate their Bot with their sequence plan at hand. Specific assigned story books are requested (to be read) in your Pre-Visit packet.
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Grade 3—Digging Into the Past: Dinosaurs may be gone but how do we know they were here? Come along as we dig into the past. Students will use real fossils and live animals to explore how fossils provide evidence that some organisms have gone extinct, and what organisms and their environments looked like long ago.
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Grade 4—Finding the Way: Changing Landscapes : Follow in the footsteps of Harriet Tubman as students discover how her deep understanding of the sky and natural world helped guide her through daily life and on the Underground Railroad. Using the planetarium and outdoor classroom, students will learn to navigate by the stars, identify local trees, and explore how planting trees can help solve environmental challenges.
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Grade 4 & 5—Making Sense with micro:bits: Combine your maker mindset with coding and sensors. Students use block code, micro:bits and their creativity to explore possible solutions to a variety of challenges that incorporate sensors such as temperature, light, accelerometer and touch.
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Grade 4 & 5—Machine Learning + Scratch (An AI Program): Can machines learn? Find out as you explore a type of AI known as machine learning. Then train a model and make the data visual (visualization) using the Scratch coding platform. No coding expereince necessary to be successful!
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Grade 5—Understanding Our Changing Earth: Q. How is the Earth changing? Q. How do we know? Q. How will changes affect life on Earth?
One of the greatest scientific challenges facing humanity is in understanding how the Earth, the only planet that has known life, is changing and how human activities are affecting the Earth System. Through hands-on modeling experiments and a mini-field data collection mission visiting 5th grade students will explore Earth Science System science principles in the context of monitoring current climate conditions. Visiting students will be invited to continue their study back at school through participation in NASA’s GLOBE program monitoring local temperature, cloud cover and precipitation.
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