Staff photo / R. Michael Semple Warren McGuffey School PK-8 fifth graders enter the 15-foot mobile Sky Dome Planetarium set up in the Warren City Schools’ new Recreation and Wellness Center Monday morning. Students learned about planets, solar systems, constellations, black holes and other space-related topics during the 45-minute session. Fifth graders from each of the district’s four PK-8 schools had the opportunity to tour the mobile planetarium during the day.

WARREN — Warren City Schools fifth-graders experienced a unique, immersive astronomy lesson Monday when they stepped into a portable planetarium in the new WCS Recreation and Wellness Center on the Warren G. Harding High School campus.

The event, organized in partnership with Mobile Ed Productions, brought groups of students into the SkyDome Inflatable Planetarium for 45-minute sessions on the stars, planets and constellations.

“This is our first large-scale foray into the center,” said Nina Elias, administrator of the Student Recreation and Wellness Center. “We house all fifth graders in the four PK-8 buildings in our district. They’re learning visually, a little more hands-on, about constellations, stars and planets, material that ties directly into their recent curriculum.”

Inside the darkened SkyDome, students sat around the dome taking in projected images of the night sky.

“They see the stars and constellations as they look today, making them a living extension of what they’ve seen in textbooks and videos.” Elias said. “It’s much clearer and they get a unique hands-on experience.”

The day was carefully coordinated, with staggered bus schedules bringing students from each school.

“The planetarium holds up to 90 students at a time, so while one group is in, another is arriving or leaving, making it seamless.” Elias said. “By the end of the day, all of our fifth graders will have had this shared experience.”

Anna Marie Buonavolonta, a fifth-grade math and science teacher at McGuffey, emphasized the importance of this connection between classroom work and real-life application.

“For the first nine weeks, we studied Earth and space, including patterns in constellations and planetary motions.” said Buonavolonta. “This experience allows students to make real-life connections to what we cover in class.”

She emphasized the impact of such interactive learning, saying: “This experience is incredibly important. Many students won’t encounter a planetarium until college. Seeing these constellations, rather than just reading or watching videos, brings science to life and helps them connect classroom concepts to the real world.”