Content on the Solar System is firmly embedded in the National Science Education Standards and in Benchmarks for Science Literacy, which typically serve as cornerstones for the Earth and space science curriculum in school districts nationally. Solar System content is introduced in grade K-2 through explorations of what’s up in the sky; addressed in grades 3-4 through patterns and cycles in the sky; a comprehensive study of the Solar System is conducted in grades 5-8; and the Solar System is placed in the context of the greater universe at the high school level.

A significant percentage of the visitorship to museums and science centers are school groups. Additionally, professional development for teachers of science, delivered by museum educators, is often a substantial museum activity. A museum or science center must therefore be responsive to the school district’s curricular needs in science education, and Solar System content is a core element. The museum or science center has the means of extending the classroom experience with its unique assets, and in the case of Solar System content, these assets likely include: galleries and artifacts, tours, planetarium programs, IMAX films, outreach programming to local area schools, public and family events, and professional development for educators.

The Voyage exhibition and the related educational materials and programs provide an extensive suite of Solar System content to support free-choice learners, school groups, and professional development of educators, as well as provide a bridge across other Solar System learning assets. Some examples:

• Voyage provides the visitor a true sense of the Solar System, which cannot be achieved within the confines of a gallery. It is the ultimate Solar System learning experience. The exhibition provides a wonderful context for an understanding of what we have learned about the Solar System and how we have learned it.

• In a museum or science center gallery you might see a replica of a spacecraft sent to Mars, or a set of large spheres identifying the relative sizes of the planets. Voyage extends that experience by providing context, i.e., a good sense of how far the spacecraft actually traveled, and the reality of small planets in a vast space. Voyage also provides a context for current events, e.g., the New Horizons spacecraft headed for Pluto, and Cassini in orbit around Saturn. Voyage allows the visitor to boldly see what it means for the human race to send a vehicle to another world, particularly one in the outer Solar System.

• Tours of the exhibition can be conducted by museum educators and docents that provide connections to relevant galleries and artifacts.

• Voyage extends the learning experience to outdoor spaces and provides something for visitors to do before the museum opens for the day, and after closing. It also can provide both a pathway to the gate, and to other sites in the vicinity of the museum or science center.

• Voyage was designed as a Solar System laboratory, allowing inquiry-based exploration through a suite of activities for the visitor. The activities facilitate observation and interpretation from different locations in the Solar System. These include, e.g., variation in the angular size of the Sun; exploration of which planets can and cannot be seen in the midnight sky if you lived on a planet of your choosing; and the travel time to a planet for a spacecraft, as well as for light—which enables radio communication with a spacecraft.

• Museum educators can provide regular professional development to grade K-12 educators on a suite of Voyage lessons that can be used before and after an on-site tour of the exhibition, and are comprehensive enough to be used by the school district as some or all of the space science curriculum.

• A high school and undergraduate ‘explainers’ program can be created where area students are recruited and trained to provide public tours throughout the summer, and tours for elementary, middle, and high school classes throughout the academic year. The tour guides serve as exceptional role models. Becoming a tour guide might also fulfill a community outreach requirement for the student.

• Training for tour guides can be done by museum educators, and if requested, by Voyage program staff. The training can be based on the tour and activity brochures, the grade K-13 lessons, and the professional development workshops that have already been developed for Voyage.

• Voyage program staff can provide training for museum educators, docents, and lead science educators from area school systems.

• Public and or family evenings can be held regularly, with a tour of the exhibition, tours of relevant galleries, family science activities already developed for Voyage, a talk on Solar System exploration by a researcher, and night viewing of the sky. This could be advertised to the public, or done as a family field trip for area schools. The Voyage program team has overseen a program similar to this for 14 years at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.