Thank you Phyllis Rosenfield

The SPARQ Center would like to thank Phyllis Rosenfield for her presentation this past Thursday night to show the award-winning short film: Embers of Awakening: From Firestorms to Climate Health. She shared stories about the impacts of climate change and possible steps we can do to make change ourselves.

To learn more you can find them at http://listeningforachange.org/ or on Facebook under Listening for a Change.

We also thank our Culinary Dept for the delicious cookies.


Thank you Owen Bissel, Cinematographer

The SPARQ Center would like to thank Owen Bissell for his presentation at the January 11, 2024 STEM Cafe.. It was interesting learning about his journey to becoming a wildlife cinematographer. He shared stories about climbing to the top of giant sequoias in the sierras, getting footage of polar bears and belugas, getting footage of a butterfly laying its eggs, and much more. He shared some behind the scenes from an upcoming program on dinosaurs that he filmed that is not released to the public yet.

Mars arrives at Piner High School!

Mars has landed at Piner High School! Thank you to Antonio Chavez for going to Richmond to help Kurt Kruger, Piner Teacher and SPARQ Center Director, pick up the model. The SPARQ Center welcomes this museum grade Topo Mars! Thanks to Scientific Art Studio’s for making this a reality for Piner High. Special Thanks also to Ms. Correia, Piner High School Principal, and the SPARQ Foundation. Fun fact, Scientific Art Studio made the Baseball Mitt in the outfield at Oracle Park among many other Bay Area monuments and Science displays.

It will be a centerpiece for the SPARQ Foyer and will be great for school groups given the Mars missions into the future. Piner used to do a cross curricular unit between departments, then a C-TEC project in the community days, and we would like to resurrect the "Mission to Mars" project. Piner Art students will be enhancing the globe.

Watch for it Fall 2024 and stay tuned! Mission to Mars is next!

Augmented Reality Sandbox

SPARQ Center Director, Kurt Kruger, demonstrated for the SPARQ Board a new tool available to GIS students. Augmented reality sandbox. It physically creates topography models that can be used to simulate an explorer various environmental phenomena, such as flooding and erosion. It came in a kit and was put together by the students. Students are calibrating it now. Calibration is done using the Xbox 360 Kinect sensor. Holding your hand above the sand (like a cloud), you can “make it rain”.

Elementary Students Give Thanks

Check out a few of the creative and colorful thank you notes from Sequoia Elementary School's two 5th grade classes who recently toured the SPARQ Center on a field trip. They enjoyed the We Are Stars planetarium movie.

The Piner High SPARQ Planetarium and Digital Theater has been hosting Elementary and Junior High classes from around Sonoma County since 2016. To date we have had 5,500+ visitors with an average attendance of 750+ students each school year (minus 2021 due to Covid). The SPARQ planetarium has also hosted high school classes, SRJC students, and boy/girl scout troops earning their Astronomy badges.

Thank you cards from Sequoia Elementary School

Welcome Back!

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We are excited to offer our 2023-2024 STEM Cafe and Digital Theater Presentations

Our first STEM Cafe is September 7th, 2023. Steve Smith, Super Mentor and repeat STEM Cafe guest, will be here to talk about the most energetic things in our universe, super and hyper novae!

Click on our Events page for more details and to see future topics.

You can also sign up for our email list to receive notice of all future SPARQ Center events.