School Programs

Poor Little Star, he is new to the universe and he just wants to see what else is out there.  He seems to be just an average star, and, judging by the reactions of the other stars he meets, he is never going to be anything special.  If only he could get himself some planets to make him special and give him a name.  On his journey of discovery, Little Star learns what makes each star special.  For some, it is their color and temperature, for others it may be their planets, and for others it is their stellar companions.  Along the way, he discovers that stars can combine to form larger groups, like star clusters and galaxies. Eventually,  Little Star finds his planets who tell them a little about themselves and give him his special name, the Sun.

It is the classic Greek story of the princess and her hero come to life!  Poor Andromeda is being sacrificed to the sea monster Cetus for the sins of her mother, Cassiopeia.  Just what lead to this calamity?   Where is her father, Cepheus, in all this?  It all sounds so terrible; she needs a hero.  Never fear for Perseus is almost here!  First, Perseus must deal with the Gorgon, Medusa, and then he will deal with Andromeda’s situation.  Will the story end happily?  Join us to find out.

A live sky tour follows the program, featuring constellations, planets, the moon and other items of interest currently visible in the sky, with tips for finding your way around in the heavens on the next clear night, and stories about the stars.

Follow the adventures of Cy, Annie and Armstrong (Cy’s dog), as they embark upon an unexpected journey into space!  Armstrong gets the kids into a little trouble with his antics on a field trip to the science center.  From there the adventure only grows as the three are whisked into space by a wise-cracking spaceship named Halley.  It's off to the moon for a little exploring, followed by a visit to the sun.  What wonders will they discover?  Will they make it back to Earth?  This wonderful adventure show is based on a story by award-winning children's author Kristyn Crow.

Meet the Whiskers, a family of endangered Australian sea lions.  Baby Otto has no one looking out for her, other than her mother.  Then again, maybe there is somebody else; Ranger Dirk Holman is charged with preserving this species along Australia's rugged southern coast.  This coming-of-age tale follows Otto and her mother as they struggle to survive, and follows Dirk as he travels to California to learn the secrets to the recovery of the California sea lion.  Will Dirk discover practices applicable to preserving the Australian sea lion?  Will Otto survive the harsh realities of life off the southern Australian coast?  Discover the answers in this film that is sure to engage your students.

A typical day for GranPa and Zoe in the Australian outback is interrupted when GranPa's old nemesis, Bogbog, attempts to block sunlight from reaching Earth.  It's up to GranPa and Zoe to put a stop to Bogbog's diabolical scheme.  Exploring and utilizing different wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum, the heroes hope to foil Bogbog, educate audiences about the nature of color and light, and save the day.

A live sky tour follows the program, featuring constellations, planets, the moon and other items of interest currently visible in the sky, with tips for finding your way around in the heavens on the next clear night, and stories about the stars.

Coyote has a razor-sharp wit and thinks he knows a lot about the sky, but as it turns out, he’s a little confused.  Coyote, adapted from American Indian oral tradition, gets set straight with his many misconceptions about lunar phases, eclipses and other puzzles of the sky.  What is the nature of the sun and moon?  How do their movements and interactions affect their appearance in the sky?  This is a great program to reinforce students' understanding of the sun, moon, and stars, and dispel common misconceptions in an entertaining and engaging way.

A live sky tour follows the program, featuring constellations, planets, the moon and other items of interest currently visible in the sky, with tips for finding your way around in the heavens on the next clear night, and stories about the stars.

On July 20, 1969, the United States landed astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the Moon.  This was the culmination of nearly a decade of efforts by thousands of people working for NASA and private contractors.  It was an incredible accomplishment and NASA would go on to land five more sets of astronauts on the Moon, the last in December of 1972.  Why did we go to the Moon?  How did we go to the Moon?  Why have we not been back since that final mission?  This immersive, historical documentary highlights the achievements of the Apollo program.  The movie ends with a call to the future engineers, technicians, astronauts, and other STEM careers that, "SPACE NEEDS YOU!"

A live sky tour follows the program, featuring constellations, planets, the moon and other items of interest currently visible in the sky, with tips for finding your way around in the heavens, and stories about the stars.

Southern Idaho, a landscape sculpted by volcanic forces.  From the stark beauty of Craters of the Moon with its extinct spatter cones and plains of frozen lava to other lava flows across southern Idaho, it is clear that volcanoes played a role in shaping the land on which we live.  Today, active volcanoes hold an allure.  It could be from their rarity or the danger they pose.  Witness the incredible tale of the birth of our planet in which volcanoes played a crucial role.  Step into the present and follow along as National Geographic photographer Carsten Peter takes you along on a personal journey to see volcanoes from the inside, revealing their hidden mysteries.  Get up close to the 2018 eruption of Hawaii's Kilauea and watch as Carsten attempts to descend to a lava lake as it roils and churns, launching fountains of lava.  You may never want to get as close to an active volcano in real life as Carsten does, but you can go there with him from the safety of your seat in the planetarium.

Every rock tells a story.

Sometime in the future…

A time has come when humans have depleted our home planet's resources.  Multi-billionaire business tycoon Warren Trout, seeking to secure new frontiers for Trout Enterprises, recruits former Space Fleet Command pilot Jack Larsen for a mission to find a suitable extraterrestrial location for human colonization.  Now Jack finds himself searching the solar system, but he isn’t alone.  It seems that Trout’s precocious daughter, Ashley, has stowed away onboard his spaceship.  Together they embark upon a wild ride through the solar system trying to answer these questions: How are the worlds of the solar system alike?  How are they different?  What features must a world possess for humans to live there?

Will Larson and Ashley find a suitable location?  Will they even survive this mission?  Find out in this action-packed adventure.

A live sky tour follows the program, featuring constellations, planets, the moon and other items of interest currently visible in the sky, with tips for finding your way around in the heavens, and stories about the stars.

Life flourishes on Earth, begging the question of whether life might exist beyond our planet.  What are the essential elements of life, as we know it?   How did these elements come into existence?  What conditions are favorable to life?  Life's Question delves into these questions and others to explore not only the origins of life on Earth, but also the possibilities for finding life beyond our shores.  Discover the all-important six "CHNOPS" elements that comprise and drive terrestrial life.

A live sky tour follows the program, featuring constellations, planets, the moon and other items of interest currently visible in the sky, with tips for finding your way around in the heavens on the next clear night, and stories about the stars.

Teachers, one of the most popular questions we get is some variation on, "How was the Earth made?"  The concept of the Earth and the other planets forming from a huge cloud of gas and dust is a tough one for students to grasp.  This show does an incredible job of explaining and visualizing how the Earth was born.  Your students will see the solar nebula collapse and countless dust particles clumping together forming larger bodies, impacts of asteroid sized bodies forming protoplanets.  Observe the Earth-Theia collision resulting in the formation of the Moon.  Four and a half billion years of time roll by as the solar system, as we now know it, comes into being and your students gain an understanding of how our Earth formed.

A live sky tour follows the program, featuring constellations, planets, the moon and other items of interest currently visible in the sky, with tips for finding your way around in the heavens on the next clear night, and stories about the stars.

An educator's guide with classroom activities is available for this program upon request.

The impulse to strike out into the unknown, to see what is over the horizon, is as old as humanity.  Today, a new horizon beckons.  Scientists now believe solar systems fill our galaxy, including up to nine billion Sun-like stars with Earth-like planets.

Astronomers are racing to find habitable worlds, including any that might exist in the neighborhood of our Sun.  If we find one, how will we get there?  How long will it take?  What spacecraft designs might one day conquer the voids of space?

Take a virtual ride aboard spacecraft of the future, based on new technologies designed to achieve ultra-high speeds, using exotic fuels and breakthrough concepts in physics.  How far can our technology take us?

A live sky tour follows the program, featuring constellations, planets, the moon and other items of interest currently visible in the sky, with tips for finding your way around in the heavens, and stories about the stars.

An educator's guide with classroom activities is available for this program upon request.

Few things appear more peaceful than a quiet, starry sky.  Year after year, the same stars return, apparently inhabiting a tranquil and unchanging universe.  Yet terrific, unseen forces shape the cosmos.  Galaxies collide; supernova explosions rip stars apart, blasting deadly gamma rays across space; black holes in the hearts of galaxies devour whole stars; asteroids and comets streak past, occasionally crashing into Earth and catastrophically disrupting its ecosystems.  In reality, the universe is a violent and dangerous place.  What dangers lurk out there, and how safe is our planet?

A live sky tour follows the program, featuring constellations, planets, the moon and other items of interest currently visible in the sky, with tips for finding your way around in the heavens on the next clear night, and stories about the stars.

We are watery creatures inhabiting a water world—a space oasis speeding between the orbits of Venus and Mars.  Without water we cannot survive, let alone explore interplanetary space.

Water is plentiful on Earth, but space voyagers must bring water with them.  A rocket's weight greatly affects its cost and how far it can travel, so finding water within the Solar System could greatly reduce the cost and difficulty of interplanetary exploration.

This program traces water across the whole Solar System, from deep lunar craters, to the scorching heat of the Venusian atmosphere, to Martian deserts, and the giant planets' frozen satellites.  Come along to discover continent-sized ice floes; vast, hidden oceans; and the icy showers of cryovolcanoes.

For all its splendor, the starry sky we see overhead is but a sliver of the universe, because our eyes are ill-equipped to see dim, distant celestial objects.  Telescopes and sensitive digital detectors reveal a "deep sky" of stellar birth and death, star clusters, distant galaxies, galactic collisions, the large-scale structure of the universe, and a background of cosmic radiation echoing across time.

A live sky tour follows the program, featuring constellations, planets, the moon and other items of interest currently visible in the sky, with tips for finding your way around in the heavens on the next clear night, and stories about the stars.

The universe is awash in radio waves, infrared light, visible light, ultraviolet light, microwaves, x-rays, and gamma rays, pouring forth from various celestial objects.  So, what do all of these forms of electromagnetic energy have in common, and what makes them different?  Learn about the electromagnetic spectrum and common, everyday occurrences and uses of these forms of energy in this fast-paced adventure.

A live sky tour follows the program, featuring constellations, planets, the moon and other items of interest currently visible in the sky, with tips for finding your way around in the heavens, and stories about the stars.

Look at the night sky and you are seeing the universe as humankind has for almost all of history.  The visible light that our eyes detect has revealed much about the universe.  Yet, it is only the tip of the iceberg: Radio, infrared, ultraviolet, x-rays, and other wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum carry a wealth of information about planets, stars, and galaxies.  The relatively recent capability of detecting energy from across the spectrum, together with the added power of interlinking telescopes continents apart, is finally lifting the veil on the secrets of our unseen universe.  Discover these technologies and their revelations on this journey into the realm beyond what our eyes can see.

A live sky tour follows the program, featuring constellations, planets, the moon and other items of interest currently visible in the sky, with tips for finding your way around in the heavens on the next clear night, and stories about the stars.

Take a trip high in the Andes Mountains of Chile to visit the observatories run by the European Southern Observatory.  With their dry air, dark skies, and remoteness, central Chile's high peaks offer spectacular locations from which to study the cosmos.  Discover not only the places of Chilean astronomy, but also the people with multitude STEM backgrounds working together to run the various telescopes and scientific instruments.

The program concludes with a virtual trip from southern Idaho to the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory for a tour of the southern hemisphere night sky.  See familiar constellations in not so familiar places and discover constellations not visible from Idaho and some of the celestial jewels of the sky south of the equator.

The age-old mystery of the Star of Bethlehem is explored in this Christmas planetarium program.  Travel back in time to the Middle East and delve into the writings of the time, including scripture from the Bible, to search for clues to add to our modern scientific knowledge of the nature of the heavens above to see if there might be some natural explanation the star's appearance.  Can the star be understood scientifically, or is its explanation only to be found in realm of the miraculous?

Note: This program has strong religious content.

A live sky tour follows the program, featuring constellations, planets, the moon and other items of interest currently visible in the sky, with tips for finding your way around in the heavens on the next clear night, and stories about the stars.