Students of St. Ursula’s Girls’ Anglican Primary School and Success Roman Catholic School were transformed into astronauts for the day as they embarked on a journey throughout the Milky Way and beyond – thanks to the Atlantic Ultimate Field Trip’s (AUFT) recent launch of the educational 3D film “Hidden Universe” at the Digicel IMAX© Cinema.
With wide smiles and starry eyes, the students entered the cinema to participate in an adventure brought to life through the power of movie magic. Approximately 15,000 students across the country each year, participate in the Atlantic Ultimate Field Trip. With this new movie in the lineup, they will take an extraordinary journey to deep space, learn about the stars, tour the surface of Mars and its craters, and witness the power and beauty of two galaxies colliding.
As the lights went down, the students shrieked with joy as the cinema doubled as a virtual spaceship that shot them through the deepest known parts of space. They marveled at the ‘celestial snow angel’ nebula and explored Crab Nebula, the remnant of a super-nova. As the movies are designed to reinforce learning outside the classroom, the students also heard about the work of two astronomers who use the earth’s strongest telescopes to dig deeper into galaxies far beyond our own.
The film was very good and exciting, and I liked learning about the nebulas,” said Davion Hosam, standard four pupil at Success RC. “I want to be a scientist when I grow up so the film helped with that.
There to further encourage the students were three NASA interns who through NIHERST and supported by Atlantic, engaged them through an interactive question and answer segment. The interns – Tevin Achong, Gabrielle Motilal, and Keanu Nichols – quizzed students on the movie and also on their general knowledge of outer space. The interns also shared anecdotes from their experience at NASA and words of wisdom underscoring the truth that the sky is certainly no limit for pursuing one’s dreams.
The Atlantic Ultimate Field Trip (AUFT) is an educational initiative sponsored by LNG producer Atlantic since 2011 at the Digicel IMAX© Cinema. Since the programme’s inception, more than 110,000 students have experienced upwards of 100,000 hours of content intended to educate and inspire them. The programme targets students through visually appealing films which use IMAX 3D technology to highlight diverse topics from marine life and dinosaurs to orphan animal rehabilitation and the wonders of outer space. The AUFT is accessible to all students regardless of school or location and serves as a teaching tool for educators that can be easily integrated into existing curriculum, making the learning of pertinent topics fun and captivating.