EDINA, MINNESOTA – SparkPoint Innovations had a great time bringing Orbit Earth Expo back to the students of Normandale Elementary School.
We enjoyed teaching grade level programs throughout the day. Students were on the ball, solving mysteries of the solar system as they rotated and revolved the earth and moon models with ease.
Catherine told the students about how REAL our model looks – because it was created using actual photographs taken of the earth from satellites! But, did you notice what was missing from the model? On particularly perceptive student said, “The labels on the countries!” So true! We are used to seeing a globe with all of the countries labeled. Do you know what else was missing? Clouds! Our satellite pictures were carefully chosen to show the land and sea, so we chose photos without cloud cover to create our model. 
Scale of the moon? Solved. Scale of the sun? No problem – but can you imagine if we were to bring the scale sized sun that would match Orb? No way! Wouldn’t begin to fit in your city, much less your school! It’s a much better idea to bring a marble to match our sun model.
We had some fun questions come up today! First, how DID we get that model into the gym? Secret: Orb is like a huge beach ball that we inflate for schools. When he’s deflated, he is about the size of a pillow! And a second question, how many earths would it take to fill up the sun? Answer? One million. Wow! Our new teacher Bonnie overheard a great question: “Has any person from Earth ever gone out of the Milky Way?” She learned that no person from Earth has ever gone out of the Milky Way, but also that we sent an object out into space over 40 years ago, and it still hasn’t gone past Pluto.
Thanks for having us to your school today! We can’t wait to see you again in the future.
