Stroll through the solar system on Troutdale school's sidewalk

CHILDREN AT TROUTDALE ELEMENTARY PAINT SUN, PLANETS, ASTEROID BELT

By Rob Cullivan, the Gresham Outlook
Published September 15, 2010, in Outlook
http://www.theoutlookonline.com/features/story_2nd.php?story_id=128451081908731100

PORTLAND, OREGON—If you want to find the end of the solar system, go to the corner of Southeast Fifth Street and Southeast Harlow Avenue in Troutdale.

Just before the STOP sign, look down and you’ll see a black strip on the sidewalk where Pluto will soon appear – as a painting less than an inch in diameter.

Students from Troutdale Elementary School will soon paint the dwarf planet there, just as they plan to paint the rest of our solar system on the sidewalk.

“It’s an astronomy lesson just by taking a walk through the solar system,” notes Michael Orelove, a member of the Columbia River Gorge Kiwanis Club.

Orelove also helped the school create “The United States of Troutdale,” a map of the nation in the playground earlier this year. The latest project – sponsored by both the Gorge and Troutdale Kiwanis – will depict the sun and the planets with their sizes drawn to scale, he says.

He hastens to add, however, that the distances are based on a different scale. If he had really designed it to a scale that matched the size of the planets to their relative distances from each other in space, Pluto would have to be painted more than 32 miles away from the school.

“That would’ve been a field trip,” he says with a laugh.

Enchanted children

On the afternoon of Monday, Sept. 13, fifth graders at Troutdale are busy taking turns painting yellow rays shooting from the sun.

“We were learning about the planets and how big they are and how the seasons arrive and go,” notes Hailie Gangle, 10.

Sean Ryan, 10, says “that heat comes from the sun, and water evaporates into the clouds and the clouds form rain.”

He says that he hopes to travel to Mars someday, but has no plans to fly his spaceship past the asteroid belt located between the red planet and Jupiter.

“If you can get past the asteroid belt, you’re probably not going to survive, and one little ding to your spaceship and you’re gone.”

Readers should note such unmanned spacecraft as the Pioneer and Voyager crafts have already flown past the asteroid belt without incident. However, no spaceships carrying Troutdale Elementary students has done so, and none are scheduled to launch in order to test Sean’s theory.

Even if Sean did get past all those asteroids, he notes it might not be worth the trip. For instance, if he landed on Pluto, he’d step outside his spaceship and go “Brrrrr!” because the dwarf planet’s average surface temperature is -380 Fahrenheit.

Kye Lewis, 10, said he was most impressed to learn “that the sun’s like really huge.”

Compared to Earth? “One hundred times bigger,” he says.

The sun’s diameter is, indeed, the size of about 109 earths, according to scientists. Even more impressive is the fact it would take more than one million Earths to fill the sun.

“I want to learn more about Mars,” Kye adds. “I heard that Mars is the place where you are most likely to find alien life forms.”

Cooper Ching, 10, says he’s enjoying creating the sidewalk solar system because it gives him an idea what colors the planets are and how big they are.

“I thought the earth was big, but compared to some of the others, it’s actually kind of small,” he says.

Orelove, a retired budget analyst from Alaska, says he likes to share his love of astronomy with the children.

“It doesn’t cost much – it costs a little bit of paint,” he says. “Someone will walk by, and they’ll learn about astronomy. It’s just fun.”