La Grande Virtual Learning Academy (LVLA), the La Grande School District’s online school, hosted an Indoor Star Party on November 5th. For the party, twenty of LGSD’s online students in grades K-8 attended a live Zoom meeting presented by the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI). The party was part of LVLA’s new STEM club for online students.
OMSI’s instructor, known to the students as Meng, shared his computer screen and guided the students in exploring stars, planets, moons and constellations. Students asked endless questions of Meng like, “How is Mars like a desert if it’s far from the sun?” and Meng’s descriptive explanations took students on a celestial journey like no other. The presentation was paid for with a grant from NASA and coordinated by GO STEM.
Pictured are Meng and LVLA students, waiting for the answer to Meng’s question of the students, “How many Earths can fit in Jupiter’s Vast Sphere?” At the bottom of the photo, a student’s guess of “200” is in a text box. Students guessed via the Zoom meeting’s chat. The answer to Meng’s question was, “1,300.”