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Laura DragonettiVA Lead Teacher: Orbit Earth Expo Laura is originally from Connecticut, but now lives in the Sandhills region of North Carolina. After earning a bachelor’s degree in 2012, she spent 10 years working in the field of education before earning a Master’s in Elementary Education in 2022. She has taught every age from preschool through college, and a multitude of different subjects. Laura loves learning and is excited to bring her enthusiasm to schools throughout North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virgina. In her spare time Laura enjoys reading, arts and crafts, spending time outdoors, and learning foreign languages. |
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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, which includes three cats and a bearded dragon. |
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.