Grants from Rotary brings Galileoscopes

Space St. Croix was thrilled to receive a grant from the Hudson Rotary car raffle of 2017. This grant was used to purchase Galileoscopes (small portable telescopes based on Galileo’s original), tripods, kit bags and star journals to bring the wonder of the universe directly into Hudson classrooms. The program is flexible depending on the grade. Older students will learn about the history of telescopes and be shown how to assemble a Galileoscope, all while learning about optics. Younger students will be presented with already assembled telescopes.

Both groups will be allowed to check the telescopes out for a week and track their observations in their star journals. For younger students not able to check out telescopes, evening events will be scheduled at their school for students and families to participate in a sky watch party.

Our other new program “High Altitude Science” was funded by a grant from the Phipps Foundation. The “High Altitude Science” program consists of an indoor/outdoor activity where students will learn about the different layers of the Earth’s atmosphere, the history and use of weather balloons, and what tools we use to predict the weather. Students will then assemble, test, predict and launch a weather balloon complete with satellite tracking, sensors, an HD video camera, gondola and recovery parachute. Students will be able to track the path of the balloon on a computer during flight, and determine the location of the recovery parachute.

These are both out-of-this-world additions to our site-based education programs.