Serving Gogebic, Iron and Ontonagon Counties
MARQUETTE - Eighth graders from Ontonagon Area Schools visited Marquette for the school's annual field trip to the Michigan Iron Industry Museum and Shiras Planeterium on Nov. 13.
At the museum, education director Barry James introduced students to the location with a short talk about life on the Iron Range. Students were then "turned loose" to find answers to scavenger hunt questions throughout the museum, teacher Ken Raisanen said.
Ontonagon students have visited the museum annually since it opened in 1987.
The group then made a brief stop near Presque Isle Park to visit a 28.2-ton slab of copper, known as "Fred's Slab" in honor of the late Fred Rydholm of Marquette.
At Shiras Planetarium, director Rachael Pomeroy spoke to students about light and color. She also offered hands-on activities to illustrate how people use light to understand the universe, Raisanen said.
"The planetarium portion of this trip is the longest running field trip that OASD students have taken part in," Raisanen said. "The first trip took place in 1977 when it took two buses and two planetarium showings to accommodate the whole class."
Eighth grade science teachers Raisanen and Luke Safford and parent chaperones accompanied the class.