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But they were able to gain perspective on those concepts through Adventure Earth, a traveling program that teaches students across the country about geography, math and earth and environmental science inside a giant Earth balloon.
On Tuesday, students in Kathy Nonthakan's second-grade class visited the Earth balloon, which was inflated in the school gym.
Alexis Johnson said she learned about volcanoes during the the Earth balloon tour.
"I learned that the biggest volcanoes have snow on their tops," Alexis said.
Ben Lynam also was fascinated by how tall some volcanoes are.
"Sometimes they stick out of the ocean," he said.
Leah Amico said she enjoyed hearing about faraway places "like Africa and the little islands by Hawaii."
Earth Adventure creator David Knutson, an engineer from Minnesota, said he started the program in 1992 as a way to share with children his love of travel. The nonprofit organization offers a variety of programs for students in kindergarten through 12th grade."I love going to new places and then learning about them," Knutson said.
Earth Adventure instructors travel around the country, teaching students about the seven continents, water resources, obscure islands, earthquakes and other natural weather phenomena using a 20-foot-diameter model of Earth illustrated with high-resolution color satellite images.
Last year, the Earth balloon visited schools in 22 states. Earth Adventure's visit to Fritz was paid for by the school's PTO.
Knutson said students are enthusiastic about learning about such Earth regions as jungles and deserts.
"I really love doing it because I put a smile on their faces," Knutson said.
After a brief introduction outside the Earth balloon where Knutson quizzed students about their knowledge of various continents and bodies of water, children lined up to go inside.
The balloon began to deflate a bit as the students passed through the zippered entrance, but a motorized fan soon had the globe fully spherical again.
Inside, Knutson explained how the continents formed and how Earth relates to outer space.
(664) (12) (11) (2)Trenton Hernandez was impressed.
"It's cool," he said.
D.J. Giles said walking around the Earth balloon made him realize the world is even larger than he imagined.
Lexi Mellinger agreed with D.J.
"It was so big," Lexi said. "I could see everything on Earth at the same time. I felt like it was the real Earth."
E-mail: mpennino@lnpnews.com
