September 20, 2019
Triton College partners with WTTW Kids to host “BIG IDEA” event for young learners
River Grove, Ill. – Triton College’s Cernan Earth and Space Center will present an Early Explorers planetarium program and host an upcoming installment of the WTTW Kids “BIG IDEA” tour for the community’s youngest learners. The Early Explorers program will feature a showing of “One World, One Sky: Big Bird’s Adventure,” in the planetarium. The show will be directly followed by WTTW Kids’ 45-minute live interactive “BIG IDEA” show, with learning activities for children ages two to seven, based on the station’s most popular children’s programs.
The event begins with the Early Explorers program on Wednesday, Oct. 2, at 9:45 a.m., in the Cernan Earth and Space Center’s planetarium, located on the Triton College campus at 2000 5th Avenue (Building I), in River Grove, Ill. The “BIG IDEA” event will follow at 10:45 a.m., in the Cox Auditorium, Room J-108, of the Fine Arts Building (J Building). Both are free to attend and open to the public.
“Our mission is to provide inspiring and educational programming for Triton community members of all ages. Through this partnership with WTTW Kids, we will host an engaging event for our youngest learners,” said Kris McCall, Director of Triton College’s Cernan Earth and Space Center.
“Early Explorers is a way to introduce young scientists and curious minds to the wonders of the Universe with programs suitable for young children and their caregivers. Hosting the ‘BIG IDEA’ allows us to introduce more people to both Triton College and the Cernan Center’s planetarium,” McCall said.
During “One World, One Sky: Big Bird’s Adventure,” the audience joins Big Bird, Elmo and Hu Hu Zhu, their friend from China, as they learn about the Big Dipper, the North Star, and the Moon. Each planetarium program also includes a short tour of objects easily visible in the current night sky.
During the “BIG IDEA” Learning Lab the children will explore several educational themes including emotions, life cycles, recycling and the natural world. The children will be encouraged by a “WTTW Lab Guy” to explore books and other learning opportunities to find solutions to a problem, answer questions, and understand new and exciting ideas.
For more information about WTTW Kids “BIG IDEA”, please visit wttw.com/bigidea.
For more information about Triton College’s Cernan Earth and Space Center, please visit https://www.triton.edu/cernan/.