Tunisia went thru a soft revolution recently and Egypt is still going through an historic upheaval in their government. Meantime Algeria is showing signs of fomenting unrest. And leaders in Saudi Arabia may themselves be worried by this tide of popular uprisings against unpopular leaders.

One of our best school assembly performers was in New Jersey schools recently. We just had to share some comments that we received following his performances. Dave Mitchell does a wonderful Ben Franklin school assembly and our New Jersey schools just loved him. 

Ohio schools love to save money on school assemblies! I say that because some of them are very good at negotiating every possible angle to cut their costs on school assemblies. Here are some of their tactics, and they will probably work in your state, too.

So what do Green Bay, Wisconsin, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Dallas, Texas all have in common? The 2011 Superbowl, right? Well, yes, of course! But something else, too. Mobile Ed visits schools in all three places to perform school assemblies.! There, now you knew that, right? :-)

Well, here in Michigan we are digging out from the latest blizzard. Michigan schools woke up to between 6 and 15 inches of snow following this mammoth storm. But that was minor in comparison.  We understand that other parts of the midwest were hit harder than us with areas in Illinois receiving as much as 25 inches of snow! Meantime parts of Indiana and Kentucky were only dusted with snow and had more trouble from ice and freezing rain. Now the East Coast is getting pounded again! Well, it is winter and what do we expect?

Here is something current. In Queensland, Australia, recent flooding caused massive evacuations and covered an enormous area with deep water. The water damage will run into the millions of dollars, and was responsible for some loss of life. Overall, it has been a huge and unprecedented tragedy. An early article from the NASA Earth Observatory (http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/view.php?id=48420) shows some amazing photos of the affected area. All this reminded me of the mind-boggling technology available providing these simply awesome satellite images and how they contribute to our being able to understand the magnitude of our planet in ways previously unimaginable while at the same time bringing everything closer. Google Earth alone stands as one of the most incredible tools I have ever seen for teaching about our planet. Even your aging writer continues to marvel away hours with that toy!

In 1957 the world was shaken up especially here in the United States when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite. Americans panicked because the Soviets were beating us into space. President Kennedy called for a new national effort to propel us to the moon. Recently President Obama made reference to this moment in his State of the Union address, calling for a new “sputnik moment” in this country aimed at propelling us back to the top in terms of our economy and in particular in education. He referenced specifically the fields of science and math. Obviously, there is merit in his proposal. Other countries are quickly sliding by us through massive investments in education and a strong emphasis on the fields of math and science, areas destined to prove especially important in the high tech world we have entered. Science assemblies and science assembly programs are a perfect way to augment and enhance the teaching of science in our schools. Kids respond to demonstrations of science and better absorb and remember teachings imparted by way of exciting props and activities. All professionally performed educational science assemblies are beneficial in this regard. However, when seeking to enhance this “sputnik moment”, schools could hardly do better than a visit from a portable planetarium such as the Skydome Planetarium. Utilizing a huge silver dome capable of accommodating up to 100 students at a time, and featuring a state of the art Digitalis star projector, Skydome is as close an experience to visiting a traditional “brick and mortar” planetarium as it is possible to have. Students learn about the constellations, Greek Mythology, black holes, the phases of the Moon and all manner of other astronomical phenomena in a fast paced, exciting 50 minute science assembly inside the giant silver dome theatre. This great science assembly is very popular and we offer several tours. If you are in Michigan science assemblies such as this are available of course, as Michigan is Mobile Ed’s home. However, tours of our mobile planetarium travel across Ohio, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Missouri, Kansas, Texas, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts, Rhode island, Connecticut, Virginia, Georgia and all of the states Mobile Ed visits. Some of our very best science assembly presenters are engaged in these portable planetarium tours to insure the very best science assemblies are delivered to your school. If you are seeking a “sputnik moment” at your school, a science assembly is guaranteed to help and Skydome Planetarium is a sure fire way to go. To infinity and beyond!

I have spoken before about Rojo, one of our great school assembly performers, but this came across my desk today and I had to share it with you.

I am a dunce. I must be a dunce.

Normally I write about school assemblies and school shows, as school assembly programs make up the lion’s share of our business. Mobile Ed Productions was, after all, founded to help educate children through entertaining and educational school assemblies.