Brief descriptions are included for each live program, including the amount of length of time. Each program is designed for one class of approximately 32 students. Each program has pre-visit and post-visit materials to support student learning. Visit the HBOSC Google Site for more details about each program and access to the pre-and post-visit materials.
Registration for Programs HBOSC Google Site
Elementary K-5 Programs
1st-2nd Grade: Magic Tree House: Space Mission (90 min)- Virtual
Have you ever wondered about the sky? What questions do you have? Join Magic Tree House characters Jack and Annie on a search to answer some questions about space! Join Planetarium Patty for live explorations related to Jack and Annie’s discoveries. This 90-minute program will include a special Magic Tree House video along with supporting interactive activities that meet NGSS PEs.
Students explore how many stars can be seen in the night sky. They participate in astronaut training! After a narrow escape from a black hole, students return “home” with Jack and Annie to discover why Earth is such a special place.
Applying their knowledge, second graders use space probe images from Mars as evidence that events occur slowly and quickly there, similar to on-Earth events like erosion (slowly) and storms (quickly). First graders take closer observations of the moon’s appearance in the sky. Come join us in this magical space adventure!
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1st and 2nd Grade: Coding Unplugged- How to Code a Sandcastle (60 min)- Virtual
During this one-hour introductory program, students explore computational thinking through the engaging story of “How to Code A Sandcastle” by Josh Funk.* Throughout the story, students engage in “unplugged interactive activities” that allow them to help Pearl solve a big problem with coding and practice simple coding vocabulary.
*Permission was obtained from the author to use the book, images, and text in this program. (PE 3-5-ETS1-1)
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2nd Grade: A Place to Call Home (60 and 75 min options)- Virtual
Your virtual field trip will have students use two observational tools they embody. Our session encourages your second graders to rely heavily on their sight and their hearing to assist in identifying subjects of nature displayed in the habitats highlighted. Be delighted by having us pique your students' (and your) curiosity, test their memory recall,... and maybe even enlighten some with our featured habitats and animal and sound exposures. A program filled with footage from farm friends of Southern Maryland. (PE2-LS4-1)
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4th Grade: Lighting the Way to Discovering New Worlds: A Search for Exoplanets (60 min)- Virtual
Students explain how light and its path is used to find and observe exoplanets, planets that are outside of our own solar system! They will also describe how light helps us determine if an exoplanet can support life by engaging in exoplanet exploration. (PE-4-PS4-2)
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4th Grade: A Preferred Choice (60 or 75 min)- Virtual
Journey with us as we prepare to drop in the midst of a weather alert, which brings about torrential rains and quickly gives way to a sloppy, soggy, floody mess! During our field trip, students prepare for a flood event, then are requested to assist another by using criteria and constraints to provide the best solution for the scenerios they experienced. So, hop on aboard and register your class for events that give way to this localized, natural Earth-changing disaster on humans! (PE 4-ESS3.2)
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3rd -5th Grade: Aquatic Investigators- Classroom Adventures (60 min)- Virtual
In the Aquatic Investigators Classroom Adventure, students will become Aquanauts for the day and join an underwater mission to learn about the ocean and its inhabitants. They will be led by Commander Carpenter, a woman from NOAA who is leading an underwater research crew aboard Seabase Ballard.
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5th Grade: Destination Mars (60 min)- Virtual
Students analyze data from rovers or small robots on the two moons of Mars – Deimos and Phobos – to decide which moon is better for a base. Something goes wrong with one of the rovers/robots collecting data, and students work together to fix the issue.
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Middle School 6th-8th Grade Programs
6th - 8th Grade: Destination Mars (60 min)- Virtual
The year is 2076. A handful of facilities have been established on Mars: a greenhouse, a mobile geological survey base, and a centralized research habitat. The primary human habitat is not on Mars but on one of its moons, Phobos. A spacecraft regularly ferries astronauts and scientists between the base on Phobos and the surface of Mars. The Spacecraft also carries parts to build a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to continue the search for evidence of life and water. However, when crew members discover an imminent threat to their Spacecraft and the Martian surface facilities, they must act quickly to save their stations, their research, andtheir lives.
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9th-12th Grade: Destination Mars (60 min) -Virtual
The year is 2076. A handful of facilities have been established on Mars: a greenhouse, a mobile geological survey base, and a centralized research habitat. The primary human habitat is not on Mars but on one of its moons, Phobos. A spacecraft regularly ferries astronauts and scientists between the base on Phobos and the surface of Mars. The Spacecraft also carries parts to build a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to continue the search for evidence of life and water. However, when crew members discover an imminent threat to their Spacecraft and the Martian surface facilities, they must act quickly to save their stations, their research, andtheir lives.
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