Students at Navarro Middle School learned about science and astronomy firsthand through a community event set up by science teacher Kristen Bender Jones, with help from Lamar CISD Director of Technology Support Services Chris Nilsson.

Each year, the Navarro community is invited to learn about astronomy and view planets through a telescope set up on campus at night.

This year, 16 students and their families viewed Jupiter, Saturn, Mars and Neptune. They also learned how a telescope functions, how to locate major objects in the night sky and the relative size and distance of the planets.