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Students learn about space while clowning around in Salt Lake City

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SALT LAKE CITY – Lucky sixth graders at Neil Armstrong Academy got to learn about some gravity defying activity from clowns dressed up like astronauts.

Ren Zo and his team taught the students about why a clown in the circle can flip and tumble and not soar on forever.

“We have laws of friction, laws of velocity, laws of inertia, once you’re on a trapeze, you have to keep going," Ren Zo said.

The kids pumped air into make-shift rockets and watched them launch into the air.

“Science runs through everything,” Ren Zo said. “We have an amazing program called Science of the Circus, which teaches how scientific concepts govern normal reality and amazing circus acts.”

The Ringling Bros. and Barnum and Bailey, along with Mercedes Roberts from Clark Planetarium, performed the demonstrations for the children and showed them new tricks and taught them lessons about a sample of a meteorite that is 4.8 billion years old.

“We are hoping to create a future of students that can problem solve and be the problem solvers of our world,” said sixth-grade teacher Jeff Walton.

The clown astronauts will be offering the lessons at Vivint Smart Home Arena ahead of the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Out of This World opening in Salt Lake City Friday.