Science Olympiad Reaches for the Stars

Dominguez Elementary’s Science Club would like to thank Region One’s Mrs. Elda Christian and the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley’s Dr. Nicolas Pereyra for selecting Mrs. Gianna Colson to participate in the Texas Regional Science Collaborative Summer Astronomy Institute. The knowledge she gained is helping the Science Olympiad team to become competitive in “Reach for the Stars,” one of 14 events the team will be competing in at regionals. The Summer Astronomy Institute included several visits to the planetarium and an open invitation to the telescope observatory. Teachers were encouraged to bring their students.

Dominguez Elementary is extremely proud of its hard working science club Team. On Tuesday, February 16th, Dominguez Elementary’s Science Club members came in at 3:45pm on their day off to practice and work on their projects. Then at 6pm, team members boarded the bus to Reach for the Stars at the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley Planetarium. The night started with a few short IMAX videos in the planetarium: Cosmic Castaways (constellations), Stellar Evolution (life cycle of a star), and Two Small Pieces of Glass (telescopes). The planetarium staff answered numerous student questions as they went over various topics covered in Reach for the Stars. 

Afterwards, the students went to the telescope observatory and got to use actual telescopes. UTRGV astronomy students Miguel Martinez and Alfonso Ruvalcaba showed the science club how to use the telescopes and point out various objects in the sky, such as the moon and its craters, the supergiant Betelgeuse located on Orion’s left shoulder, the nebula located on Orion’s sword, Sirius (the closest and brightest star), and Jupiter and the Galilean moons.

Miguel regaled the students with astronomy facts and related pop culture such as when he told the students that Sirius Black in Harry Potter turns into a dog just like the constellation Sirius is an image of a big dog. Miguel and Alfonso were very gracious and informative as Reach for the Stars competitors Delilah Romayor, Nicole Gerardo and Sydney Frausto peppered them with questions.

The Dominguez Science Club is extremely appreciative of the opportunity the UTRGV Planetarium made available to them. Thank you Chelsea Lyssy, UTRGV Planetarium Coordinator, for working with Mrs. Colson and making this fieldtrip possible. It was a great learning opportunity with people who specialize in the field.