Kramer Edu-tainment

Stellarium

Ever wished you had a real planetarium available for your students? Now you can 'Stellarium' renders realistic skies in real time, simulating the skies from anywhere on Earth in close to photo-realism. It is a beautiful and engaging way to explore and increase your understanding of the night sky. See constellation art, deep space objects, meteor showers, solar eclipses, transits, and more!

Approximate program length: 5-45 minutes
Recommended Grades: All

Saturn, the Ring World II

The Cassini Mission to Saturn has been a resounding success, giving us a greater knowledge of the gas giant and its spectacular moon, Titan. Learn how their sophisticated instruments have gathered vital data to help scientists understand this vast, mysterious region.

Ring World is narrated by Star Trek’s John Billingsley (Dr. Phlox on the Enterprise) and was produced by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Approximate program length: 30 minutes
Recommended Grades: All

Secret of the Cardboard Rocket

Climb aboard a magical cardboard rocket with two young children and enter an extraordinary ride through space in this lighthearted show. Experience a breathtaking, up-close look at each of our solar system's planets, and receive special guidance from Astronomy Book — a character personified by a wise, kind old man. You'll see each fascinating orb as you never have before — including Mercury, which has the shortest year, and the famous red planet – Mars, where a volcano exists that's larger than the state of Utah! You'll zoom through the crackling ice-and-rock rings of the “gas giant” Saturn, right after you investigate another gas giant — Jupiter, whose size equals 1,000 “earths.” You'll navigate around our other planets, and find yourself hurtling toward the outer reaches of our system to our final destination — the remote, frozen planet of Pluto. Suddenly you realize your “air supply” is running low and it's time to return home. But hold on for one last revelation. It's not until the end of your travels when you find out what the true secret of the rocket is – something that makes this apparently impossible trip to the edges of the universe and back become possible and within your reach at any time you so desire.

Produced by the Clark Planetarium

Approximate program length: 20 minutes (partial length) or 45 minutes (full length)
Recommended Grades: PreK-2

The Dinosaur Prophecy

Join paleontologists at the scene of the crime, excavating bones and wondering what killed the mighty dinosaurs. Be amazed as your favorite giants come to life, roam across the dome, and meet their catastrophic deaths. Find out how NASA scientists monitor the Earth for potential disasters!

The Dinosaur Prophecy is a co-production of the Rice Space Institute and the Houston Museum of Natural Science, funded by NASA's Office of Earth Science under the "Immersive Earth" project.

Approximate program length: 30 minutes
Recommended Grades: K-4

Earth's Wild Ride

What would it be like to live on a lunar colony and to dream of visiting Earth? Experience the heart-pounding exhilaration of a water canyon ride near an erupting volcano, venture through an Ice Age scene with a herd of wooly mammoths and to the time of the dinosaurs as an asteroid hits!

Produced by the Houston Museum of Natural Science/Rice University as part of the NASA-funded Immersive Earth Project.

Approximate program length: 30 minutes
Recommended Grades: 1-4

Fantasy Worlds

Explore the limits of life! Is extra-solar life more strange than life on Earth? On Earth, scientists have discovered life forms flourishing in the most extreme and dangerous environments – from deserts, boiling springs, and acidic ponds to Antarctic ice. Fantasy Worlds features artists and animators creations of possible life-bearing worlds that our telescopes and spacecraft may someday find around other stars.

Fantasy Worlds is a joint production of the Houston Museum of Natural Science and the University of Houston Partial funding was provided by an education and public outreach supplement to a NASA-Exobiology Program of the Department of Biology and Biochemistry at the University of Houston.

Approximate program length: 30 minutes
Recommended Grades: 3-8

Secrets of the Dead Sea

Secrets of the Dead Sea is a full-dome documentary, filmed at the Dead Sea and from space with historical clips and computer animation. In this show, the Dead Sea comes alive through stories preserved in its cliffs and caves and in the stars overhead. Ancient scrolls chronicle the passage of time by motions of the sun and moon, while rock and sand preserve a living record of a place as timeless as the star patterns above.

Produced by the Houston Museum of Natural Science/Rice University as part of the NASA-funded Immersive Earth Project.

Approximate program length: 30 minutes
Recommended Grades: 3-8

Passport to the Universe

This is a thrilling journey out into the Solar System, through the Milky Way Galaxy and to the edge of the observable universe. Fly beneath the rings of Saturn, into the heart of the Orion Nebula, and back to Earth through a black hole, experiencing these and other stunning cosmic destinations as never before!

Narrated by Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks and produced by the American Museum Of Natural History in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Approximate program length: 30 minutes
Recommended Grades: 3-8

The Search For Life: Are We Alone?

Does life exist anywhere else in the universe? Ancient mythologies and contemporary science fiction have presented imaginative possibilities, but how does modern science approach this question? The Search for Life: Are We Alone? begins to answer this intriguing question in a breathtaking new Space Show narrated by Academy Award–nominated actor Harrison Ford.

Produced by the American Museum Of Natural History in collaboration with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).

Approximate program length: 30 minutes
Recommended Grades: 4-8

Future Moon

Gives us a glance at what the future may hold for humans on the moon. This show takes us back to Apollo missions, human’s first step on the Moon, and a look at what a future lunar colony might be.

Narrated by the legendary Walter Cronkite, Future Moon was developed by Houston Museum of Natural Science, Rice University and NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

Approximate program length: 30 minutes
Recommended Grades: 4-8

Lucy's Cradle: The Birth of Wonder

Lucy's Cradle tells how changes in the earth's geography and atmosphere and Lucy's upright posture combined to allow creatures first to observe the skies. Journey through the solar system to see the other worlds in our solar neighborhood. Why is intelligent life only found on Earth? Could any other planet or moon harbor primitive life? Journey back into time to ancient Africa, home of the world's most famous fossil. Watch her come alive with her family, and see how changes in her environment drove hominid migration.

**DISCLAIMER: Content could be considered controversial--includes theories of evolution**

Approximate program length: 21 minutes.
Recommended Grades: 5-8

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Night of the Titanic

A 25-minute multi-media planetarium program that combines "fully immersive" computer animation with the latest scientific research, is allowing viewers inside our dome theater to experience what it was like to stand on the deck of the doomed ocean liner Titanic the night she sank. "Night of the Titanic" shows the unique conditions in Earth and space that -- coupled with human errors -- contributed to the sinking of the ship on April 15, 1912.

Approximate program length: 25minutes.
Recommended Grades: 5-8

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Script

Force Five

Earth’s weather can be friend or foe. Feel Mother Nature’s fury – Extreme weather takes center stage in this realistic animated show revealing images not seen by the naked eye due to their life-threatening nature. Using real movies and NASA based images, Force Five producers give the audience a vantage that would never be safe in the real world, creating a sense of what it would look and feel like if you were standing in the middle of a deadly storm. Hunker down as you are hit by a force five hurricane, tornado, and solar storm.

Force Five was funded by NASA's Museums Teaching Planet Earth Project at Rice University and by the Image Spacecraft Mission and produced by the Houston Museum of Natural Science and Sybil Media.

Approximate program length: 30 minutes
Recommended Grades: 5-8

Microcosm

An Adventure Inside the Human Body In this extraordinary adventure, fly up the carotid artery, explore the eye, brain, ear, and heart and then shrink into a cell to see the nucleus and DNA. Microcosm uses the latest discoveries of nanoscale science to create a voyage that is realistic and possible for inner space probes only a few nanometers wide. Audiences learn about using superconductors to measure magnetic fields outside the body and about deploying gold nanoshells to the sites of tumors or infections.

Microcosm is produced in conjunction with Evans & Sutherland
Corporation with collaboration and support from the Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology, the Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, the Institute of Biosciences and Bioengineering at Rice University, and the Texas Center for Superconductivity at the University of Houston.

Approximate program length: 30 minutes
Recommended Grades: 5-8

Season of Light

When the December holiday season rolls around each year, planetarians often present special programs that combine astronomy and holiday traditions. One of the most popular shows in the Loch Ness Productions repertory is Season of Light. It's an elegant and sophisticated program about the coldest and darkest of seasons — a time which holds some of the warmest and brightest celebrations of the year.

Approximate program length: 35 minutes
Recommended Grades: All Ages

Star of Bethlehem

THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM FASCINATES. For millennia, believers, scoffers and the curious have wondered at the Biblical account of the Star. The Bible recounts unusual, or even impossible astronomical events at Christ's birth. For many doubters, the account of the Star is easily dismissed as myth. For many believers, it's a mystery accepted on faith. But what happens if we combine current historical scholarship, astronomical fact and an open mind? Judge for yourself...

Approximate program length: 22 minutes
Recommended Grades: 5-8