MCCC students use Science on the Sphere tool for public speaking course

Montgomery County Community College Communication Studies students on the Pottstown Campus incorporated an out of this world visual aid to help them present their speeches recently.

Communication Studies Assistant Professor Meredith Frank’s Communication Studies 110 and 120 classes gave informational speeches using the Science on a Sphere ® (SOS) in the College’s South Hall lobby.

SOS is a room-sized, immersive global display system that uses computers and video projection to display planetary data onto a four-foot diameter carbon fiber sphere, analogous to a giant animated globe.

Students were tasked with researching SOS and informing their classmates about how it can be used. Frank said she wanted them to see how the tool can be incorporated to enhance their presentations in the future.

“The goal is for them to practice giving an informational speech and also demonstrate ways to use SOS in creative ways,” she said. “So that they will hopefully want to use it again in other classes.”

Students selected topics which effectively utilized the sphere’s animation capabilities including planetary weather patterns and the effects of climate change. Frank said she appreciated the effective ways students incorporated the sphere into their presentations and plans are in the works to incorporate the technology again during the fall 2026 semester.

Students Wynter Liebel, Luke Wisniewski and Delilah Freitas said their speeches benefited from the engaging visual aid.

“I thought it went really well,” said Liebel. “This was my first time using the SOS and it was really fun.”

“The SOS was great,” said Wisniewski. “It’s a great presentation room and I really liked the lighting and the secluded feeling the space gives you.”

“This was my first speech by myself, so it was a bit nerve-wracking, but learning how to use the SOS was fun,” said Freitas. “I’m very much interested in climate change, so learning about it and having that interest made it more comfortable. I think this is a good tool for people to use.”

This isn’t the first time Frank has found innovative ways to incorporate new technology into the public speaking classroom. The League for Innovation in the Community College, an international nonprofit organization, recently presented a 2024-2025 Innovation of the Year Award to MCCC in recognition of its Virtual Reality for Public Speaking Skills project, where students could wear virtual reality headsets to practice giving speeches. Frank was among the first to incorporate the headsets into her classroom.

SOS is supported by a gift from Carl and Silvia Landis of North Coventry in memory of their sons Paul and John. The “Carl and Sylvia Landis Science on a Sphere Endowment Funds” are used for sphere maintenance and upkeep in perpetuity and to support K-12 students to participate in STEM extension activities, which may include the Science on a Sphere and activities at the Challenger Learning Center at Montco Pottstown, in perpetuity.

SOS is available for use by all MCCC faculty and staff for programmatic enhancement or event facilitation. With over 600 datasets collected by satellites from NOAA and NASA, the sphere is a powerful experiential and educational learning tool designed to help illustrate Earth system and planetary science to people of all ages. Animated images which are used to explain complex environmental processes provide an immersive learning experience that is simultaneously intuitive and captivating, unlike no other.

For more information about the Science on a Sphere®, contact the Science on a Sphere team.