Part of learning is listening, another is writing. UW-Stout professor Alan Scott realized that another important part is seeing. Over the summer Scott offered teachers an opportunity to develop their own teaching skills by organizing a class called “Topics in Astronomy for Elementary School Teachers.” Part of the course included the painting of science murals on local schools and playgrounds. The murals act as teaching tools, showing everything from dinosaur anatomy to geologic timelines. The geographical compass portion of the mural is painted with the help of astronomical software to determine the position of the sun at a particular time of day, date, and geographical location. The geologic timeline is arranged like a clock. When the viewer stands in the middle of the mural, they can see the Earth’s creation begin at north and continue clockwise along the illustration. The center acts as a sundial, and the rest of the space is filled with an astro-compass that shows 60 stars that can be viewed at a latitude of 45 degrees north. One completed mural can be found at River Heights Elementary School in Menomonie. The educational mural becomes a comprehensive teaching tool, allowing teachers and children to draw in chalk over the top of this giant, circular science book. Not only do students get a visual representation of what they’re learning in science class, they get a better chance to understand how big concepts like astronomy and geologic time apply to the spot where they’re standing.