•  Cernan Earth and Space Center 

    Our Place in Space

    Grade Level: Preschool through 2nd grade
    Length: 35 minutes
     
    Our Place In Space is a multimedia program that combines stars, panoramic scenes, pictures and a variety of planetarium special effects to tell the delightful story of discovery and friendship between five animal characters -- a macaw named Scarlett, a snake named Sheeba, an Indian elephant named Indy, a crocodile named Crusty and a polar bear named Paula. With help from her fellow animals, Scarlet Macaw completes a crossword puzzle during the course of the show that draws its answers from the daytime and nighttime skies. The crossword puzzle clues and answers are as follows:
     
    Puzzle clue     Answer 
    The opposite of night   day
    What makes it daytime   sun
    The sun is one   star
    The planet we live on   Earth
    Goes around a star   planet
    A weighty subject   gravity
    The opposite of day   night
    Star picture   constellation
    A Milky Way that's not a candy bar   galaxy
    Fun place to learn about space   planetarium

     
    In addition to providing these specific crossword puzzle answers, Our Place In Space also introduces the audience to the composition, size and distance of our sun, explores why nighttime stars seem so small compared to the sun, demonstrates how the rotation of our Earth causes day and night, shows how to connect stars to form imaginary pictures in the sky, briefly explores each of the nine planets of the solar system and visits a beautiful gaseous nebula and galaxy in space. A brief question-and-answer period follows the presentation.