Williamsville Central School District

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Middle School

Blown Away
Length: 40 Minutes

BlownAwayHave you ever been in a thunderstorm? How about a hurricane? Come see this amazing virtual show that immerses you in both! This show explores the science surrounding our planet's climate using amazing and exciting weather footage. Now you, too can experience the excitement of being in a hurricane, but without the danger!


Cosmic Colors
Length: 35 Minutes

Cosmic ColorsCosmic Colors: An Adventure Along the Spectrum will take you on a wondrous journey through the world of color and beyond! Discover why the sky is blue, why Mars is red, and the reason why many things are the color that they are. Tour the interior of a plant leaf, voyage through a human eye, then step into the invisible universe as you investigate x-rays by taking on a monstrous black hole. Explore the world of infrared in a roaring fire, and even discover what may have been the actual color of a dinosaur. Explore the amazing rainbow of cosmic light through Cosmic Colors, an original production of the Daniel M. Soref Planetarium in cooperation with the Great Lakes Planetarium Association.


Cosmic Recipe
Length: 24 Minutes

CosmicRecipeCosmic Colors: The famous astronomer Carl Sagan once said: "If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe." Though that may sound crazy, Sagan was onto something BIG! Want to know what? Pull up a chair at our Planetarium’s Periodic Table and learn the cosmic recipes that created everything in our world – even us! Discover how the Big Bang cooked up everyday elements such as the calcium in our teeth, the silicon in our smart phones, and even the carbon in our apple pies in The Cosmic Recipe.


Defying Gravity, It is Rocket Science!
Length: 24 Minutes

DefyingGravityMeet meet Apollo Aurora, host of the Planetarium Channel’s universally loved gravity news source, Defying Gravity, It Is Rocket Science! With special robot correspondents Apple 1-6-8-6 and EGR-1, Apollo and her team will explore rocket power, gravity on other planets, monstrous black holes and even what keeps us grounded on Earth! Tune into this brand new planetarium show and uncover the mysteries of gravity.

Did an Asteroid Really Kill the Dinosaurs?
Length: 24 Minutes

DidAnAsteroidReallyKillTheDinosaursDid a space rock six miles wide slam into the Earth 66 million years ago and wipe out 75 percent of all living species at that time, including the dinosaurs? Cosmic collisions are abundant in our solar system. See the numerous craters on worlds like the moon, Mars, and even distant Pluto. Explore the dinosaur disaster up close, supported by evidence from the Milwaukee Public Museum’s own Geology Department in this MPM original planetarium production.  The show includes footage from the first iridium layer found in Gubbio, Italy.

Earth, Moon, & Sun
Length: 30 Minutes

Earth Moon and SunThis planetarium show explores the relationship between the Earth, Moon and Sun with the help of Coyote, an amusing character adapted from Native American oral traditions who has many misconceptions about our home planet and its most familiar neighbors. His confusion about the universe makes viewers think about how the Earth, Moon and Sun work together as a system. Native American stories are used throughout the show to help distinguish between myths and science. Learn why the Sun rises and sets and the basics of fusion and solar energy. Examine the Moon's orbit, craters, phases and eclipses. Also, the show explores past and future space travel to our Moon and beyond.


Enlightening Lightning
Length: 30 Minutes

EnlighteningLightningThe goal of the show is to teach lightning safety and lightning facts in an immersive environment. Through the use of video, an animated character, and a meteorologist, explore the fascination and excitement of Nature's Light Show! Understand the Science and learn the safety rules!

IBEX
Length: 30 Minutes

IBEX"IBEX: Search for the Edge of the Solar System" details the IBEX spacecraft's exploration of the outer solar system using energetic neutral atom (ENA) imaging to create the first global maps of interactions between the million mile-per-hour solar wind and the low-density material between the stars, known as the interstellar medium. Using these data, researchers will examine the structures and dynamics of the outer heliosphere and address a serious challenge facing human exploration by studying the region that shields Earth from the majority of galactic cosmic ray radiation.

Legends of the Night Sky
Length: Each 20 Minutes

Legends of the night sky1Two shows that use Greek mythology (and lasers!) to inspire an interest in astronomy. legends of the night sky2This Planetarium features the stories of Orion and of Perseus and Andromeda. Come learn about constellations and astronomy through Legends of the Night Sky!

The Little Star That Could
Length: 36 Minutes

LittleStarLittle Star, an average yellow star, searches for planets of his own to protect and warm. Along the way, he meets other stars, learns what makes each star special and discovers that stars combine to form clusters and galaxies. Little Star also learns about planets and our Solar System.


Oasis in Space
Length: 25 Minutes

Oasis In SpaceWe invite you to journey through the solar system and gaze at beautiful images of the planets and their satellites. We start by exploring Earth, with its vast oceans that make life possible. One by one, we fly by the other planets and moons, accompanied by full descriptions of their characteristics, such as atmosphere, temperature, and composition. Spectacular pictures invite students to draw their own conclusions about the other orbiting bodies in our solar system: is there water out there? Is there life beyond Earth?


Our Violent Planet
Length: 28 Minutes

OurViolentPlanetWe live out our lives on our planet’s fractured crust “plates” that pull apart, collide, grind past each other, and even sink below one another, producing violent earthquakes, volcanic eruptions , and catastrophic walls of water known as tsunamis. This spectacular fulldome show illustrates Earth processes including earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, geology and continental drift.

Regenerative Medicine Partnership Programs

Our Cells, Our Selves
Approximate running time 15 minutes.

OCOSIn Our Cells, Our Selves you are invited to a science bedtime story with 7-year old Sylvie, a recently diagnosed diabetic, who is discovering the wonders of the immune system. Sylvie’s mother tells a story that takes us back hundreds of millions of years to explore how the balance between access to food and immune protection evolved into the modern human immune system. Learn that under rare circumstances, things can go wrong, leading to auto-immune diseases like Type 1 Juvenile Diabetes. The story closes with a look at the future of medicine and the potential for cures!

Produced by Regenerative Medicine Partnership in Education.


Dr. Allevable’s Unbelievable Laboratory
Approximate running time 23 minutes.

DrAllevableDr. Allevable and Regenerobot invite you into their laboratory as they investigate the new and exciting field of regenerative medicine! The human body is vulnerable to injuries—bone breaks, skin burns, and heart attacks, and regenerative medicine can help us heal faster by enhancing the ways that the body heals itself.

Produced by Regenerative Medicine Partnership in Education.

Season of Light
Length: 40 Minutes

Season of Light"Season of Light" is a Planetarium star show featuring the customs and traditions of winter festivals of long ago. The show is about the coldest and darkest of seasons--a season which holds some of the warmest and brightest celebrations of the year. The show also recounts the historical, religious, and cultural rituals practiced during the time of the winter solstice. Christian, Jewish, Celtic, pagan, Nordic, Roman, Hopi, and Mexican winter festivals are featured. It is also a look at our more light-hearted traditions: from gift giving and mistletoe to songs and decking the halls with greenery and candles. Naturally, astronomy is a focus in the show--a few constellations, the Sun's path across the sky, and the Earth's tilt and orbit around the Sun are used to explain the changing seasons.

Solar System Odyssey
Length: 30 Minutes

Solar System Odyssey"Solar System Odyssey" is an adventure set in the future, in a time when humans have depleted the resources of their home planet. A business tycoon recruits our hero, Jack Larson, on a mission to discover a new home for humans to colonize. Join Jack Larson on a wild ride through our Solar System as he looks for answers to these questions: How are the worlds of our Solar System alike? How are they different? What must those worlds have in order for humans to live there? The journey takes us on an exciting exploration of our cosmic neighborhood, including the icy rings of Saturn, Jupiter's volcano-ridden moon Io and the sub-zero methane lakes of Saturn's moon Titan. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Morehead Planetarium and Science Center produced this fulldome show.

The material contained in this planetarium show is based on work supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) under grant award number NNX09AL78G. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of NASA.


The Teenagers' Guide to the Galaxy
Length: 30 Minutes


Teenagers' Guide to the UniverseCreated and hosted by cosmically curious teenagers from urban Milwaukee schools, this unique cosmic experience will take you on a dynamic journey across the universe and through time.
Explore the origins and fate of the universe, black holes and our Sun. Witness stunning full dome animations video scripted, story boarded and narrated by our inspiring young adults.


To Worlds Beyond
Length: 25 Minutes

ToWorldsBeyondFrom the fiery surface of the Sun to the icy realm of comets, travel to worlds with enormous volcanoes, vast canyons, dazzling rings, and storms that would swallow the Earth. Learn more about Mars and Pluto too!

The Water Cycle
Length: 14 Minutes

TheWaterCycleEvaporation, condensation, precipitation, advection, humidity, transpiration, and even evapotranspiration are introduced and taught in this video. We use live action FullDome videography to immerse the audience in the learning experience. This education module ends with a review set to a rap – the “Water Cycle Rap”. Careful, you may find yourself humming the catchy tune well after the show!

The Voyager Encounters
Length: 45 Minutes

VoyagerEncountersOne of the greatest poineering explorations of the solar system was conducted by the space probes, Voyagers 1 & 2. These probes went farther than has ever gone before and vastly explanded our knowledge of the solar system. The vast collection of images and data collected by the Voyagers are uncovered in this amazing show! Among other encounters, this show contains those of the probe's visits to Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Come on this exiting trip through the solar system!