Laying under a blanket of stars we listened to educator, Kyle Koyle, explain how the stars move in the sky relative to our position on Earth. She shares stories of common constellations and tips for finding our way, wayfinding, with the stars. Then with the click of her mouse she shifts the sky above our heads and we are transported to the moon where she begins explaining lunar days versus solar days and how eclipse events happen.
We were not laying in a field but on the gymnasium floor of the Geno’s Gym facility managed by the Harney County Kids Club. Kyle arrived on Thursday afternoon in her very recognizable GO STEM (Greater Oregon Science Technology Engineering and Math) van and within an hour had inflated the mobile StarLab. Eastern Oregon University’s GO STEM HUB provides no-cost STEM educational programming to seven counties of Eastern Oregon: Wallowa, Harney, Grant, Morrow, Union, Baker, and Umatilla counties.
Over the course of the next day and a half, 73 youth and 36 adults came from all over Harney County to experience the StarLab. The first group on Thursday was made up of students, educators, and parents from the county’s outlying rural schools such as Double O and Fields. On Friday morning the students who attend Kids Club were able to rotate through in two rounds before we welcomed youth and their families from the Burns Paiute Tribe’s Tu-Wa-Kii Nobi program. The lab was also open to the public on both Thursday evening and Friday afternoon.
The partners who made this possible set up various hands-on activities. Participants went home with a solar system mobile, glow-in-the-dark star bracelet, and/or their very own phases of the moon booklet. Friends of Malheur NWR is proud to work in partnership with the Harney County Library, Harney County Kids Club, and Bird Alliance of Oregon to bring programs like this to Harney County youth and families.
