Mobile Planetarium takes students on a trip into “Gross” topics

Some students’gasp, while others giggled as Nick Eakes told the Fairmont Middle School students the show they were about to see will talk about pimples, farts, burps and boogers. Eakes is an Astronomy Educator from the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center in Chapel Hill.  He travels across from Murphy to Manteo and all across the state with the Morehead Mobile Planetarium. “Today when we go inside instead of talking about outer space, we are going to talk about inner space. Today, we are learning about gross things that happen in the human body, pimples, farts, boogers and things like that as weird as that sounds. Even though these things are gross, they are essential for our bodies to function. We will also look at how our respiration works and how we digest food and how our immune system protects us,” said Eakes.

For 11-year-old James Hunt, even though the show featured characters called scabby, boogie and flatus the topic was not gross. “It was a fun way to learn science. You learn from it, but I liked it because it was cool and it shows you all kinds of parts of your body and stuff,” said Hunt.

Fairmont Middle School is the first school in the district to have the Morehead Planetarium and Science Center bring the traveling planetarium to present the “Grossology and You” show.  Sitting in the school gym, the students watched a full dome video trip through the human brain and the immune system. The students had a close up look at what happens to skin when students fall and scrape their knee and how the body’s defense shield makes a scab. The students also had a close-up look to see what causes pimples and how oils and bacteria are a recipe for acne.

11-year-old Halie Scott said even through she learned a lot about the heart and lungs, the presentation was more than funny. “It was cool, but it was kind of nasty. When they were doing the boogers, the farting and some of the stuff it was nasty”, said Scott.

Tammy Lewis teaches fifth grade Science at Fairmont Middle. She applied for a scholarship to pay for the mobile planetarium to visit the school. Lewis incorporated the visit into the curriculum. “We just started learning about cells and how cells work. There are good cells and bad cells and when they opened up the program today, they were talking about bacteria and I was like, “Ole yes”. I can’t wait till they get back to class,” said Lewis.

Nick Eakes, teaches astronomy and works for NASA Studies Neuroscience. To students, the mobile planetarium looks like a igloo sitting in the gymnasium. “We take it on the road for schools that can’t take a trip to the big planetarium. This particular visit was funded by a grant from the National Institutes of Health and Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA). Because Fairmont chose to see this “Grossology” show they got there visit paid for by that grant”, said Eakes.

For more about the Morehead Planetarium visit http://moreheadplanetarium.org