Indoor stars dazzle kids

"The stars are really cool," said Cooper Terromes, a 9-year-old third-grader at Roosevelt.

"They had a projector in there and it moved and turned - I learned a lot about constellations," he said.

Students at Roosevelt are learning about astronomy in class, and teachers pulled astronomy books from the library for special lessons this week, said Lauren Rosen, the school's Parent Teacher Association president.

The school's 258 students and the rest of the district were invited to the exhibition as part of its TV turnoff week, where each school hosts afternoon events.

Fifth-graders and parents helped run booths surrounding the new portable planetarium, including lessons on relative size of planets, the order of our Solar System and finding stars.

"It's been crazy crowded," said science teacher Stephanie Fealy between presentations to students inside the darkened dome.

Fealy showed an artificial Burlingame night sky calibrated to April 19, and pointed to Ursa, Leo and of course the Big Dipper constellations as the voices of more than 100 children echoed off the gym walls.

The new planetarium was bought with recent grant money from Johnson Controls and the Peninsula Community Foundation.

Kim Vullock, a parent of girls in first and fourth grades, helped students at a booth learn about the size and order of planets by taping objects to a map of the solar system.

She said students were overwhelming her with their enthusiasm.

"I haven't stopped since I got here," she said.

Parents, teachers and students also had a barbecue on the school's field as the sun set and the real night sky appeared.

Stephen Baxter can be reached by e-mail at stephen@smdailyjournal.com or by phone: (650) 344-5200 ext. 109. What do you think of this story? Send a letter to the editor: letters@smdailyjournal.com.