Lost in Space

Probably the most exciting aspect of my job is working as a technical advisor and ocassional teacher in our newly refurnished planetarium. I once was a middle school science teacher so the blending on my academic knowledge and technical skills was a perfect fit. Our planetarium is outfitted with a dome projection system and we are running the lastest version of Uniview by http://www.scalingtheuniverse.com/. This software changes the way univese is viewed. We fly through space from our earth the end of the mapped universe. We can also fly to the surface of the earth but the low level fly-overs are spectacular. The planetarium is no longer just for space education but for earth sciences also. With the addition of .wms overlays we can fly over our city and identify our school. One of the great features of the software is it allows us to connect with any or all of the other planetariums running the same software to run joint domecasts. With Skype for our audio feed we can take turns running all the domes and sharing lessons. On January 23rd we participating in a domecast that included sites in the United States, Africa, and South America. The show was drive and conducted by Dr. Carter Emmert from the Rose Planetariun in New York. It truly was the personification of the original promise of the Internet to shrink the world and to provide worldwide educational collaboration.

Our planetarium also has a 3' diameter Magic Planet, a globe projection unit. One of my jobs is develop animations for use on this piece of equipment. Most visitors to planetarium cannot decide which is more impressive. Both of these technologies provide large scale learning experiences. This immersion, grand visual experiences provide an unique learning experience. There is research that shows that these types of experiences increase learning and retention of that learning. http://www.globalimagination.com/ This is the Magic Planet website. Have a look. We currently use the Magic for lesson on plate tectonics, human migration, day/night, and planet comparison.

The planetarium director and I wake up every morning and pinch ourselves to make sure we aren't dreaming because when we walk into work we are living a dream.

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Comment by Tom Welch on February 15, 2009 at 9:38am: Bob, Sounds awesome and looks very impressive! I went to a high school in rural Nebraska, graduating in '71 and we were one of the only public schools that had its own planetarium at that time! Of course, my schedule was too crowded to have time to take a course . . . what a missed opportunity.
Thought you (or maybe your students in the future) would be interested in a great project. It's called the Virtual Learning Magnet for Space Science and Mathematics, under the auspices of CCSSO (the Council of Chief State School Officers). Goal is to offer students a suite of courses where the content is through the lens of their interest -- in this case Space, aviation, etc. We are currently in the Proof of Concept stage, offering a physics course to 50 students from several states and even 2 from France. Regular pre-college physics but content that they choose to learn the principles is drawn from the space/aviation world. This POC is funded by NASA, and the Smithsonian has come on as a partner as well. Hope to expand rapidly soon. If you have students who might be interested, let me know. Think of what they could do with you and the interest you've created in them.