By Mailan Nguyen
Staff Writer
Honors Earth Science Teacher Karl Kurz took his class on a field trip to Griffith Park Observatory on Sept. 30 for an Astronomy show, “Centered In The Universe” to learn what the night sky should look and relate it to the Astronomy chapter in the Honors Earth Science curriculum.
According to Kurz, the main goal of this field trip was for all of his students in the Honors Earth Science class to come back with a deeper and better understanding of what they have been learning in class since they are getting the opportunity to actually experience it.
“Pictures are worth a thousand words, but being there and seeing it with your own eyes is worth a million,” said Kurz. “For my students, seeing pictures of the stars on the whiteboard is nothing like seeing it with their own eyes at this planetarium.”
The “Centered In The Universe” show opens with a sunset, then transforms to a sky full of stars with amazing precision. The show presents individual constellations as well. According to senior Annabelle Tribble, the show presented a visual of how much is out there in the universe.
“I know the constellations told stories like the Zodiac signs, but really finding out that they had more substance and meaning made it come to life,” Tribble said. “It makes a huge difference than seeing it in our classroom.”
The students also saw exhibits, such as the Foucault Pendulum, which shows the rotation of Earth, and Cosmic Connection, which shows the evolution of the Big Bang. According to the students, their favorite exhibit was one that depicts scale models of the planets and includes scales where students can find their weight on each planet.
“From that exhibit you can see how the weight in yourself changes on the different planets in the universe,” said Kurz. “Students learned that your weight changes but your mass does not.”
On Dec. 13 or 14, Kurz and his Honors Earth Science class may possibly be going on another field trip to Frazier Park. There, they would get the opportunity to see the Geminids meteor shower. Kurz said that the Frazier Park field trip would be for a meteorology lesson, where students would be able to see meteors traveling up to 120 miles per hour.
“I can’t show the students in the classroom what these field trips can do, they touch all modalities of learning,” said Kurz. “It’s a very hands on experience and being there makes a worlds of a difference.”
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