Planet gravity bottles at the Challenger Learning Center

Earlier this week, one of my classes visited the Challenger Learning Center at Heartland Community College in Normal, IL.  As noted on their website (http://challengerlearningcenter.com/):  

“The Challenger Learning Center provides simulated space missions to central Illinois schools of K-12 students. Kindergarten through fourth grade students take on the roles of astronauts, scientists, and engineers during their MICRONAUT mission. Students in grades fifth through eighth become the flight controllers and astronauts during their SCHOOL mission to Rendezvous with a Comet, or take a Voyage to Mars. Ninth through twelfth grade students not only become the flight controllers and astronauts during their HIGH SCHOOL mission, but also lead their mission, Operation: Planet Rescue.”  The place is pretty awesome, though the cost of the missions might require some creative funding on the part of schools.  Since we were a group of teachers, we got a free tour after hours (though we did not run any missions).  One demo that a lot of us liked were 20 oz. Pepsi bottles that were emptied, refilled with sand and metal shot to alter their weights, and then relabeled to explain what the weights of the bottles would be on various planets.  These were developed by the director of the center.