St. Paul’s Como Planetarium will celebrate 50 years this month with a public “star party” that includes activities, telescopes and the opportunity to see a classic film and original planetarium equipment.

The public is invited to the free celebration from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. at Como Park Elementary School at 780 W. Wheelock Pkwy. on April 17. The party also will feature the “star ball,” the star projector that was used by the planetarium until around the early 2000s before it was replaced by a digital system.

“And we’ll have activity tables, as well — science-related activities. So people generally can come and they can kind of hop around to those different activities, or the telescopes or the planetarium as it suits them,” said Sarah Weaver, a science teacher on special assignment who leads the planetarium.

In Minnesota, there are only a handful of planetariums, such as the Como Planetarium, Weaver said, though some traveling inflatable ones do exist. Also in St. Paul is the Bell Museum’s planetarium.

Como Planetarium, which can seat up to 55 people, has been in operation since 1975. It is part of St. Paul Public Schools.

A giant globe of the Earth is suspended just outside the Como Planetarium at Como Park Elementary School in St. Paul on Thursday, March 27, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

‘You can do that in a planetarium’

A planetarium provides opportunities a teacher wouldn’t have in other spaces, said Weaver, who started in her role in 2018 and is the fourth planetarium teacher in its history.

“A classroom teacher cannot speed through time and show where the sunrise is changing on the horizon, but you can do that in a planetarium,” she said.

The planetarium typically sees up to 10,000 SPPS students on field trips each school year. Grant funding from 3M Co. supports transportation to the planetarium. The facility also can host groups from outside St. Paul schools.

‘Experiential learning’

The planetarium offers a range of lesson lengths, depending on the grade level and other factors. Como Park first-graders, who simply walk to the planetarium from their classroom, received a half-hour lesson recently. Third-graders, however, have 90-minute lessons.

Weaver works with other SPPS teachers and science specialists to develop her lessons. This has included other teachers on special assignment, such as Julie Hutcheson-Downwind – now principal at American Indian Magnet School – who implemented Indigenous education at the planetarium, teaching students about topics like Ojibwe constellations.

Special Assignment teacher Sarah Weaver teaches Students from Mellissa Anglum’s Como Elementary first grade class about the phases of the moon in the lessons room next to the Como Planetarium at Como Elementary School in St. Paul on Thursday, March 27, 2025. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

Working with different departments helps support creating the best possible lessons, Weaver said.

“I feel like experiential learning is a great opportunity for interdisciplinary work and for kids to make connections that are not just within one subject area,” Weaver said.

Weaver uses the planetarium’s computer system to teach students about the solar system, locating constellations and other lessons based on the grade level. Fourth-graders, for example, may collect data by measuring the sun’s height in different seasons. An adjoining room also gives students space to do hands-on activities related to what they’ve learned, such as acting out movements of the solar system.

“I mean, part of science is being able to touch things and do things. So I have a tendency to like to teach that way. And while the planetarium is fabulous at showing visuals, it’s nice to have a bigger space for playing with those same concepts, but in a different way,” Weaver said.

‘First time ever’

The planetarium has also hosted other star parties, which is a big piece of what SPPS Community Education does, Weaver said. A recent star party was in preparation for the eclipse last year, Weaver said.

“And still, every single time we do a star party, there are people who look into a telescope for the first time ever,” Weaver said.

Weaver said throughout the planetarium’s history, the focus has been on the kids.

“And I believe the planetarium is an important and critical visual tool, an experiential tool for students understanding the sky and also their place on the planet,” Weaver said.

For details on the star party, go to stpaul.ce.eleyo.com/course/16759/spring-2025-adult/star-party-celebrate-50-years. To learn more about the planetarium, go to commed.spps.org/planetarium.

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CHICAGO — As the rain started and stopped throughout Wednesday afternoon, the Twins waited inside the visitors’ clubhouse at Rate Field, ready to play.

Their long wait — the Twins and White Sox were delayed for 3:20 before their series finale, the third rain delay in their first six games — was ultimately worth it. Once they finally hit the field, the Twins salvaged the day by winning their second consecutive game in Chicago, this one a 6-1 win, sending them home from their season-opening road trip 2-4.

It came on the backs of Pablo López, who threw seven innings of one-run ball, Byron Buxton, who had a pair of extra-base hits, including his first home run of the season, and Harrison Bader, who hit his team-leading third blast of the year.

López, who endured a lengthy rain delay before his first start of the season as well, was sharp from the get-go on Wednesday. He allowed just four hits, and got some good defense behind him, including a diving catch from Buxton in center and a basket catch on the run from shortstop Carlos Correa.

It wasn’t until the seventh inning that the White Sox broke through with second baseman Brooks Baldwin launching a solo home run. But by that point, the Twins had a large lead well in hand.

In the first inning, Buxton crushed a breaking ball left over the plate, sending it 446 feet out to left-center field. The Twins pushed the game out of reach a few innings later in the fourth when Bader, for the second consecutive day, hit a three-run home run, depositing a pitch into the left-field bullpen.

And in the fifth, Correa started a rally with a double. In addition to making a nice defensive play, Correa finally collected his first — and second — hit of the season after days of hard contact. Correa was 0 for 18 before watching a ball roll through the infield and into right, raising his hands to the sky as he saw the ball reach the right field.

In the dugout, his teammates teased him, raising up their hands as if to single for the ball, which teams collect when a player records a memorable hit.

Correa came around to score on a Buxton double — his second extra-base hit of the day — and Buxton scored the Twins’ final run on a Ty France hit.

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FCC Environmental Services will continue to collect residential trash across the city of St. Paul using 560 Randolph Ave. as its base of operations, at least for the next 90 days.

At the urging of Mayor Melvin Carter, the city council voted 6-0 on Wednesday to extend the mayor’s emergency declaration, which temporarily overturned a zoning challenge that had left the trash hauler’s chosen dispatch and maintenance site off-limits just before the start of its citywide contract.

“I will be supporting this … because it’s a critical responsibility of the city to collect trash,” said Council President Rebecca Noecker, who had led efforts two weeks prior to block FCC Environmental from the site.

“I do this without changing my strong position,” she added, blaming the hauler for any last-minute fumbling. “I continue to believe this is not the right site.”

Dispatch center

Noecker said she expected that the mayor’s office and FCC Environmental will use the next 90 days to scout out a better location for what will be a $25 million dispatch center, maintenance facility and compressed natural gas station for the company’s trash trucks. FCC Environmental has made no secret that while it intends to launch service with about 30 trucks, that number might more than double as it expands its presence in the Twin Cities and adds more municipal accounts.

The hauler purchased the former Randolph Avenue tow lot last August and then sought official clarification from the city that its existing “light industrial” zoning would allow trash truck cleaning, maintenance and dispatch, as well as a compressed natural gas refueling station. In response, the city zoning administrator last January called the uses comparable to those of a Public Works yard, which is indeed allowed under “I-1” zoning.

Expressing concern about safety and environmental impacts on their residential neighborhood, members of the West Seventh/Fort Road Federation appealed that finding to the city Planning Commission, which supported the stance taken by city staff. The neighborhood federation then appealed again to the city council, which voted 5-0 on March 19 to support the appeal and overturn the zoning decision, with less than two weeks to go before the April 1 start of citywide trash collection under the new hauler.

State of local emergency

Carter then issued the council a strongly-worded letter, saying the council had “plunged the city into crisis.” He followed that up this week by signing a “state of local emergency” declaration that went into effect Tuesday, just as FCC Environmental was scheduled to begin collection on residential routes citywide.

The emergency declaration could only be for three days without further council action, which was granted Wednesday, but not without some words of warning from the council president. Noecker said the next 90 days should be dedicated to finding an alternate location, and “not be used to undermine the council.”

So far, it does not appear that the company is on board. The Planning Commission’s zoning committee is scheduled to review a site plan for FCC Environmental’s proposed truck facility on April 10, and the full Planning Commission will consider their recommendation a week later.

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Tori McKinney scored a career-high 26 points, and Mallory Heyer added her second double-double in as many games as Minnesota beat Belmont, 75-63, to win the second Women’s Basketball Invitational Tournament at Hinkle Fieldhouse on Wednesday in Indianapolis.

The Gophers finished the season with five straight tournament victories to be the last team standing in the 32-team WBIT. They hoisted the program’s second postseason trophy, and first since the 2012 team won the 16-team Women’s Basketball Invitational under Pam Borton.

The Gophers (25-11) improved to a healthy 9-1 in postseason games under second-year coach Dawn Plitzuweit.

Minnesota’s Amaya Battle pulls up for a jumper in the first half of the Gophers’ WBIT championship game against Belmont on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. (Zach Bolinger / Gophers Athletics)

McKinney, a freshman guard from Minnetonka, was the hot hand early, scoring 19 first-half points as the Gophers took a 37-23 lead into intermission. Heyer, who had 13 points and 15 rebounds in the semifinal victory over Florida, finished with 18 points and 18 boards.

Amaya Battle added 17 points, seven rebounds and five assists for Minnesota. Banks scored 17 points for the Bruins.

Heyer’s layup with 1:56 left in regulation helped the Gophers hold off a late run by Belmont (26-13), giving the Gophers a 71-58 lead. The Bruins trailed by as many as 24 but made it interesting late when McKinney was on the bench with four fouls.

They finished the third quarter with a 5-0 run, then used a 12 run to pull within 63-53 on a layup by Jailyn Banks with 5:20 remaining. After trading baskets, Belmont cut its deficit to single digits, 67-58, on a 3-pointer by Kendal Cheesman with 3:17 remaining in regulation.

Grocholski missed a pair of free throws, and Banks hit a jumper to pull the Bruins to within 71-63. In the end, however, Minnesota made just enough free throws to put the game away, 5 for 8 in the final 1:20.

The Gophers blitzed the Bruins early, opening a 14-3 lead on a 3-pointer by Heyer with 2:10 left in the first quarter. That lead ballooned to 16 a couple of times before intermission, the last on another 3-pointer by Heyer.

Minnesota’s chances to put this one entirely away were undone by turnovers late in the second quarter. Before that, the Gophers were outsourcing Belmont off turnovers 14-0. But Minnesota coughed the ball up five times in the last 4 minutes of the first half, and the Bruins scored five points off of them.

Still, a 37-23 lead was auspicious as the Gophers started the second half, especially considering leading scorer Grace Grocholski didn’t have a point, 0 for 2 from the field, although she did have four assists and a steal. The Gophers, in fact, recorded 13 assists on 15 baskets before intermission.

Minnesota turned up the heat early in the third quarter, however, holding the Bruins to one field goal in the first 4:20 — a 3-pointer by Kendal Cheesman — to take a 50-26 lead on McKinney’s layup.

Minnesota freshman Tori McKinney celebrates a 3-pointer in the first half of the Gophers’ WBIT championship game against Belmont on Wednesday, April 2, 2025, at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. (Zach Bolinger / Gophers Athletics)

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