Weirton Daily News, January 15th, 2005 - Angel Rae Hill, staff writer

Students across Hancock County recently had a chance to reach for the stars in their own school cafeterias.

The West Liberty State College Science Math and Research Technology (SMART) Center's STARLAB made stops at New Manchester Elementary and St. Paul School this week.

"The STARLAB provided a really neat educational opportunity for our students," New Manchester Elementary Principal Mike Swartzmiller said. "We're also lucky to have Ms. Stephanie Newbrough here to teach the classes at our school."

New Manchester Elementary first obtained the inflatable planetarium during the first week of January, and the school was able to keep it for an extra day because of the flooding on Jan. 6 and 7.

A New Manchester Elementary release stated STARLAB is an inflatable planetarium from the SMART Center. The center promotes and provides hands-on science, mathematics and technology activities for schools across the Ohio Valley. The Center is directed by Robert Strong.

The school has to have a certified STARLAB student or teacher available in order to rent the planetarium.

WLSC student teacher Stephanie Newbrough explained STARLAB comes with seven cylinders, which include the constellations with labels and lines, a starfield without any labels, Native-American constellations, plate tectonics, ocean currents, weather patterns and living cells. Newbrough said her mother teaches at New Manchester, and she wanted to bring the STARLAB to the school so the students had a chance to experience it.

Swartzmiller said this is the first time the school has had the lab since he has been principal at New Manchester.

Newbrough said the younger students participated in the constellation programs, while the older grades learned about plate tectonics.

"At first, the older kids were disappointed because they wanted to see the stars" Newbrough said. "After they saw it and we talked about the tsunami, the kids got excited."

She said after the students learned about plate tectonics and how the shifts between them caused earthquakes and tsunamis, the students had a chace to see the constellation programs. Newbrough said when she worked with the students on the constellation programs, the students first tried to find the constellations without the lines.

"They couldn't do it," Newbrough said. "I showed them some tricks to find the constellations."

She taught them how to find Orion and the Big Dipper, because they are among the easier constellations to find in the sky.

The STARLAB moved to St. Paul School Monday afternoon, and students from kindergarten through eighth grade had a chance to experience it throughout the week.

WLSC student teacher Melinda Coates also is certified to teach STARLAB, and she brought it to St. Paul School because her son is a student there.

"I thought it would be something nice for the students," Coates said.

She said the younger students studied the constellations, while the older students from fifth through eigth-grade worked on plate tectonics. The students not only studied the Earth's plates, but also the recent tsunami in Indian Ocean region. Coates sid they conducted other visual aid activities to enhance the lesson on plate tectonics and the tsunami..