Life After Liftoff

Gary T. Pozzato embodies the essence of loving what you do for a living. With his traveling multimedia space exploration show, he travels from his base in Vernon, Connecticut, around the state to entertain and educate children. He does both extremely well.

Last Friday at in Branford, students in two groups (K-2 and 3-4) gathered for a 45-minute presentation, “Go for the Stars” where Pozzato quickly won them over with flying blow-up space ships, a talking-walking robot and video of life as an astronaut.

Soon as the show began, Pozzato introduced himself as “The Space Guy.” Principal Dr. Susan Iwanicki-Smith echoed, “That’s what he really wants to be called.”

Iwanicki-Smith was pleased to have Pozzato’s educational demonstration at Sliney and noted that the PTA made the event possible.

PTA member Christine Baughman said a flyer led her to Pozzato’s show. “I was looking for something a little different,” she said, “that challenged them and got science involved.”

Students went crazy for ROBO, the friendly robot who responded to commands as well the multimedia presentation featuring astronauts and outer space.

After learning about the recently discovered , students learned about roving space units sent to planets to collect data. They sat intent, listening to “The Space Guy” explain how space exploration works. They echoed him with enthusiasm that it takes 18,000 miles per hour to orbit the earth. “18,000 miles per hour,” they chanted.

In unison, the students yelled, “wow” upon seeing a super nova. They were awed by the physics of gravity and antigravity and a group of students even got to dress as NASA astronauts and participate in demonstrations.

Taking some of the most complex topics of space and science, “The Space Guy” was well received by both students and faculty.