Liberty Science Center Parterned With NASA for “NASA Night at LSC”

Visitors at the recent “NASA Night at LSC enjoyed a “Blast Off Activity.” (Photo credit: Liberty Science Center)

On March 8, 2023, LSC partnered with NASA for “NASA Night at LSC” where guests were offered climate change and other NASA-focused educational content, including special planetarium shows and guest speakers from NASA.

“NASA Night at LSC” was held as one of LSC’s Community Evenings. On these nights, the building is open at no cost to students and families from qualifying school districts.

In the planetarium, guests enjoyed a “NASA Earth Sciences” presentation. NASA Educator Trena Ferrell beamed in from Maryland to the Jennifer Chalsty Planetarium to bring NASA’s discoveries in Earth sciences to life on LSC’s giant dome.

Visitors also enjoyed the “Climate Change: Earth, Mars, Venus” planetarium show. In this show, viewers explored the work that our nearest NASA office, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in Manhattan, is doing to better understand this important topic. The show also took viewers to Venus and Mars to see what our fellow worlds can tell us about climate change on our home planet.

This climate change presentation was led by Ashley Grey, a teacher at Baruch College Campus High School in Manhattan who has been working on climate change projects with GISS, alongside LSC’s Planetarium Educator Nick Wildason-Ferreri.

Over in the Joseph D. Williams 3D Science Theater, visitors enjoyed a 3D animated film, “Fly Me to the Moon,” and joined three everyday houseflies as they voyaged to the moon with the historic Apollo 11 mission.

Additional live science demonstrations and activities included “Meet an Animal,” where guests encountered LSC’s resident critter; “Blast Off!”, an explosive demo of how rockets got off the ground; and “Straw Rockets,” a hands-on activity that let guests initiate a mini launch.

All exhibitions were open too, including The Great Train Set, Pompeii: The Immortal City, Thomas & Friends: Explore the Rails, and Wild About Animals.

Next NASA Night at LSC

The next NASA Night at LSC will be May 10, 2023.