A field trip to the Clark Planetarium in Salt Lake City, Utah, offers an immersive journey through space and planetary science with three floors of hands-on, interactive exhibits. Exploring the Earth showcases Earth’s dynamic nature with exhibits on volcanoes, earthquakes, and cosmic impacts, as well as real geological specimens, including a moon rock from the Apollo mission and a meteorite from Mars. Students will experience the Restless Planet exhibit, where they can step inside a giant tornado, create a volcano, or simulate an earthquake. They can also visit the Meteorite Impact! gallery to learn about objects from space that strike Earth and touch a 1,700-pound meteorite. Additional exhibits explore the Moon, space weather, planetary processes, and black holes, allowing students to interact with plasma, predict space weather, and even experience the forces of gravity through a Lunar Lander simulator.
Beyond the exhibits, students can enjoy a Hansen Dome Theatre presentation for a breathtaking 45-minute show about space, or a Northrop Grumman IMAX Theatre film covering topics in astronomy, nature, and science. The Science on a Sphere presentation provides a visual, guided lesson on planetary systems, while the Northrop Grumman Exploration Space exhibit lets students simulate space missions and launch rockets. With so many opportunities to engage with science, engineering, and space exploration, Clark Planetarium provides an unforgettable field trip that fosters curiosity and a deeper understanding of the universe.
