NASA/courtesy of nasaimages.org

What does the Carter Space Education Programme include?

  1. A curriculum-linked teaching resource sent to your school before you visit. This offers astronomy information, lesson plans and activities, and links for further research.
  2. A member of Carter's Learning Team will help teachers tailor a programme to meet their group's learning objectives.
  3. A free familiarisation visit for teachers.
  4. Once at Carter, students will be able to explore the interactive multimedia exhibition. This encompasses four themes: Space, Time and Matter; Stars, Solar Systems and Planets; Life in the Universe & Astronomy of Oceania. This can be self-directed, or via a trail sheet. The exhibition makes space relevant to young people by giving information in terms of everyday life. For example, students will be able to view a pillar of sand containing one billion grains of sand. They will be asked to imagine more than a hundred of these pillars to envisage the scale of Te Ikaroa, The Milky Way.
  5. There will be an opportunity to view, or even handle, significant astronomical artefacts, heritage telescopes and historic documentation shipped to New Zealand during World War II. When viewing conditions are right, students will be able to use the Cooke Telescope to view the Sun under controlled conditions.
  6. Optional Hands-on workshops led by the Carter Learning Team will be available.
  7. Finally, the group will be guided to the planetarium where they will sit under the stars as they are guided through space in the planetarium's immersive digital learning environment.
  8. The group will have the opportunity to ask a member of the Education Team questions, and to continue their learning journey back in the classroom with Carter's space education resources.

The Carter Observatory learning experience is targeted at students in Years 1-8. A small fee will apply. Morning and afternoon sessions available.