Blog: Partner Highlights
Partner Highlight: Through Hardship, Haile Planetarium Continues
January 3, 2020
Christa Speights, Planetarium Director
Haile Planetarium is a 61 seat, 30 foot planetarium that is part of Northern Kentucky University. In recent years, we have had about 10,000 visitors per year. One recent expansion that has helped us grow is the NISE Network's Explore Science: Earth & Space 2019 toolkit. This is helping us get through our largest obstacle yet.
Partner Highlight: A New Virtual Learning Program: Mote SEA Show Makes a Big Splash! Sarasota, FL
November 26, 2019
Ross Johnston, Mote Marine Laboratory & Aquarium, Sarasota, FL
Looking for the intersection of education and entertainment? Marine science and museums? Look no further than Mote Marine Laboratory’s new virtual learning program, the “Mote SEA Show”! Mote’s team of marine science educators is taking learning beyond the classroom, literally, with a new interactive, livestream marine science morning show. This innovative, educational broadcast focuses on illuminating what goes on behind-the-scenes in marine science and research.
Partner Highlight: Science Education Helping a Community Recover From Disaster on the Island of Hawaii
November 19, 2019
Christian Wong, Executive Director, Hawaii Science and Technology Museum, Hilo, HI
Thursday, May 3 2018 started like any other typical Hawaiian day in paradise on the island of Hawaii, the state’s largest and most geologically active island, when without warning first responders began receiving calls of cracks in the roads and unusual noises in Leilani Estates Subdivision. To this day many residents continue to struggle to recover from this life altering event, buoyed only by hope and the Aloha Spirit of family and friends in this tight knit community accustomed to coming together to rebuild after natural disasters. The State and County of Hawaii continue to deliver assistance to the communities most affected by the eruption and have tapped the Hawaii Science and Technology Museum, a NISE Network Partner, to help rebuild the local workforce and industries through STEM education and programming.
Partner Highlight: A Summer-Long Community Library Program Celebrated the 50th Anniversary of the Apollo 11 Mission
November 4, 2019
Jake Milliron, Mobius Children's Science Museum & Science Center
The Mobius Children's Science Museum & Science Center serves a large geographic community in Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho, reaching both rural and urban communities. This past summer, in support of the nation-wide program, A Universe of Stories, the children's museum created programming using their Explore Science: Earth & Space toolkit and mobile planetarium engaging 1950 visitors across 24 different library events, which was a 20% increase from previous summer library programming!
Partner Highlight: The EcoTarium’s Lunar Launch in Worcester, Massachusetts
September 27, 2019
Rachel Quimby, Public Programs Coordinator/Museum Educator
Trois, deux, un…blast off! This past July, visitors from as close as next door and as far away as Paris, France gathered around the upper plaza of the EcoTarium in Worcester, Massachusetts to celebrate 50 years since Apollo 11 headed into space. Along with cheering on two chemical rocket launches, attendees of the Lunar Launch Party also sent stomp rockets flying, blew the tops off film canister rockets using a mix of acids and bases, drove model rovers through an obstacle course, designed and tested small-scale parachutes for astronauts, and watch planetarium shows. Read more about Worcester on the Moon events and festivities.
Partner Highlight: Pop-Up Science with NASA at the Michigan Science Center in Detroit, MI
August 30, 2019
Charles Gibson, Director of Outreach
In mid-July, the 23rd annual GLOBE meeting took place in Detroit just a few miles from the Michigan Science Center (MiSci). MiSci had spent months planning Apollo 11 50th Anniversary programs between July 16th-20th, from the Global Rocket Launch Challenge...
Partner Highlight: Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas, Texas Celebrates 50th Anniversary of Moon Landing
August 30, 2019
Alicia Morgan, Vice President of Education and Programs
The Frontiers of Flight Museum’s “Moon Day” in Dallas celebrates the past, present, and future of space flight and has become the largest annual space-themed exposition in Texas. Moon Day was established in 2009 by the Museum, in collaboration with the National Space Society of North Texas, as a family-oriented annual event on the Saturday closest to the anniversary of the first Moon landing. This year, the Museum’s 10th Anniversary Moon Day focused on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission and was held on July 20th—the exact date of the first landing on the Moon.
Partner Highlight: Adventures in Exploring Earth and Space at tag! Children’s Museum in St. Augustine, Florida
July 29, 2019
tag! Children’s Museum, St. Augustine, Florida
When Michele Wiles, Director of Play and Discovery for the emerging Children’s Museum of St. Augustine spearheaded our partnership with NISE Network last winter, it paved the way for bringing truly unique STEAM-based learning experiences to our community. From our first Exploring Earth and Space family workshop event to an event for Big Brothers Big Sisters and their littles, the Earth & Space toolkit has brought enthusiasm and new partnerships into our emerging children's museum and community.
Partner Highlight: Making the Most of the Explore Science: Let’s Do Chemistry Kit
July 25, 2019
Dr. Anna Cavinato, Eastern Oregon University, La Grande, OR
When the Student Chapter of the American Chemical Society (Chemistry Club) received the NISE Net's Explore Science: Let’s Do Chemistry kit in September of 2018, it was like early Christmas! The Eastern Oregon University (EOU) Chemistry Club has a long standing tradition of bringing hands-on science activities to the local community and the region. We are located in the northeastern corner of Oregon, in a largely rural area where often schools have limited resources to provide lab-based activities, and the kit seemed immediately the perfect match for our outreach events.
Partner Highlight: Sustainability and Citizen Science at Long Island Children’s Museum
June 5, 2019
Claire Flynn, STEM Initiatives Program Director, Long Island Children’s Museum
Through the Sustainability Fellowship program, Long Island Children’s Museum created a Milkweed Garden and offers programming that allows visitors to participate in the the Monarch Larva Monitoring Project, a citizen science project based at the University of Minnesota. I chose this project because I wanted to create an experience that involved our visitors in citizen science and gave them a way to consider how climate change is affecting our local community.