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Ellie FlessnerIL & IN & WI Lead Teacher: Orbit Earth Expo Ellie was born in Chicago Illinois and attended Oberlin College in Ohio, graduating with a concentration in education. With over a decade of teaching experience in half a dozen countries, Ellie has made it a mission to bring science (and joy!) into classrooms around the globe. Having taught at almost every level, from pre-k to Ph.D. candidates, Ellie is a firm believer in the power of sensory play and immersive learning as a tool to effectively instill a lifelong love of science for students. When Ellie isn’t pursuing their passion of educating the next generation of young scientists, you can find them working as an operations manager for a restaurant group in Chicago, as well as volunteering for numerous social justice causes. |
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Tracy CusterMarketing Director Tracy is a lifelong resident of North Carolina, though she loves to travel. She was a NC Teaching Fellow at Elon College and earned her MLIS degree from UNC-Greensboro. She has been a classroom teacher, school librarian, and technology guru over the course of her twenty plus years in public education. She was the Orbit Earth Expo lead teacher for the Carolinas from 2015-2019 and is passionate about making earth science accessible for K-8 students. She is married and has two children in their early twenties. When she is not working, she loves to read, play the Sims, and spend time with her family and three cats. |
Students journey into space to create and experience the cycles, systems and relationships between the earth, moon and sun using our huge, inflatable Earth model and scale-sized moon. While interacting with the inflatable representations in a darkened gymnasium with a light to represent the sun, students manipulate the models to experience eclipses, seasonal/lunar cycles, creation of winds, day/night cycles, tides, rotation vs revolution, physical characteristics of the earth, moon and sun, gravity, order of the planets, seasons and more! The Orbit Earth Expo Program correlates to the state and grade level science objectives. There are different age-appropriate programs for each grade level.