On Saturday, Alumni Hall in the HUB-Robeson Center looked more like a children's museum than an auditorium, as many children and their families came to learn about space outside a conventional classroom.

Penn State's Space Day 2004 brought people from all over Pennsylvania to the HUB-Robeson Center to learn about space exploration.

"We drove all the way from the Poconos to get here," Space Day participant Sherry David said. "We've been here for an hour, and it's already been worth our time."

Davis just finished teaching her 9-year-old daughter Shauna about the solar system in their home-school sessions. She said she felt it would be worth the trip for her daughter to see examples of the lessons she was taught.

Penn State's fifth annual Space Day is a supplement to the National Space Day that occurs annually on the first Thursday in May.

Space Day was brought to Penn State by Angela Phelps, K-12 programs assistant director, and Lisa Brown, Pennsylvania Space Grant Consortium director.

Phelps said each year, Space Day has a variety of goals organizers would like to see met.

"One of the goals is to display the wide variety of NASA and Space Grant-sponsored activities taking place on campus," she said. "It is also to engage the public in fun and educational hands-on activities related to Penn State research."

At least one of these goals was accomplished with the Davis family.

"I'm having a great time," Shauna Davis said. "It's teaching me a lot more."

The event is funded by the Space Grant and NASA and is made up of students and researchers in the College of Engineering.

Some students are required to help out at the event to meet class requirements.

"It's part of our grade to be here," Kris Greenert (freshman-aerospace engineering) said. "It's also good to create awareness about space."

Others said they volunteered simply because they felt the subject matter was an imperative one to expose the children to.

"It is important to promote the whole idea of space exploration," said Mariya Ivanushkina, who works in the astronomy department. "I've done quite a few interviews with children already."

Many activities were provided to help children learn about astronomy and space.

Some activities included a Mars yard, a mission Earth project, a Mars art collage, planetarium shows, and multimedia presentations on Mars and the future of space exploration.

One large attraction was a walk-in replica of the Spirit III rocket. The rocket displayed constellations for children to study as they walked into it.

"It took six of us about three hours to put it together," Greenert said.

On display was the ESPRIT project, an undergraduate project that Penn State students are working on with Norwegian students to build a payload for launch on a NASA sounding rocket. "ESPRIT is project we're setting off in Norway in 2006 to measure plasma in the atmosphere," Greenert said.

Some members of the College of Engineering said they expected about 1,500 to 2,000 people to attend the event, though others were overwhelmed by the crowd.

"There was more of a turnout than I expected," Ivanushkina said. "I was a little bit surprised."

Those involved in Space Day 2004 said they considered it a success.

"I think we're invoking interest in space with the children," Greenert said.