The Planetarian, March 2000, Vol. 29, No. 1, p. 65 Jane's CornerThe Best Planetarium in the Whole World
by Jane Hastings, Thomas Jefferson Planetarium, 4100 West Grace Street, Richmond, Virginia 23230 I have visited many planetariums in the last 30 years; I would like to reveal my selection for "The Best Planetarium in the Whole World." I know what you're thinking; I haven't seen them all. Please hear me out, I think you'll agree. I'll tell you right away so you won't have to guess. It's the Holt Planetarium at the Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS), in Berkeley, California, built in 1973, under its first director, Alan Friedman. Planetarian Alan Gould is its current director. Let's go inside and see what qualifies Holt as "the best". As you enter the planetarium, you are struck with the smallness of it. It has a 6.8-meter dome, a Goto Mercury planetarium projector, and one circular set of benches. The benches seat approximately 25 (a few more children). The benches are so close to the inside circular wall that when you are seated, your head is slightly outside the dome circumference. Above and behind your head, on the wall, hang clipboards on nails and orange-colored dimmable lights which shine down on you. The console is in the center of the room. The operator walks around the room in a narrow circular path found between himself and the feet of the seated patrons. No automation is evident; lots of toggle switches show on one side of the console. Two switches operate a cassette tape player and a CD player hooked up to two modest speakers. Other switches toggle a video projector, four slide projectors, and a couple of special effects projectors, all mounted in the center of the room somehow. Where's the laser, all-sky, panorama projectors, surround sound, exploding supernova? How could this be the "Best Planetarium in the Whole World?" This planetarium is a laboratory; a place in which to try out things which benefit all planetariums worldwide. It's inhabited by energetic go-getters who are anxious to be involved in projects to improve learning and science/math literacy. To that end, the LHS Holt Planetarium has been partners with several NASA and other federal programs including:
These are very busy folks, as you can see. The real clincher
for Holt's title-of "The Best ..." evolved while
I was on vacation. I visited the Holt Planetarium to see a
planetarium show. This is where Halt really shines! There were
two shows offered during the day. One of them, "Constellations
Tonight," is designed to teach people how to use a star
map for the current night sky. The one I went to see was called "Moons
of the Solar System". It was offered twice during the
center's hours of 10:00-5:00. The planetarium show was $2.00,
an extra cost not included with the admission price to the
Hall. Surprise! Not only is it in a different place, it's a different shape! "Where would it be three days from there?" he asked. Again, we saw the moon in a different place, with a different shape. We were asked to name the shapes we have seen. He then told us the names of the shapes, and asked, "Why does the moon change?" After a leisurely pause for audience ideas, he told us, "The moon moves around the earth. As the sun shines on the moon, the moon looks different". He then turned on a fairly bright light in the middle of the room and gave each person in the room a 2-inch Styrofoam ball stuck on a 6-inch piece of dowel rod, and we modeled moon phases, using our head as earth. We discovered how the moon changed phases. After completing this demonstration, we were next shown a
copy from a page of Galileo's journal on which he recorded
data about the, moons of Jupiter. The drawings were confusing.
Next we saw a slide of what Galileo probably saw: Jupiter and
its four largest moons. It was the first in a series of 11
slides specially produced for this show. they were shown in
a sequence that revealed the position of the four moons over
a period of time. Each moon was a different color (for purposes
of this demonstration). People in the room were divided into
four groups; each group was told to watch one moon as the slide
sequence was shown, and report when "their" moon
came back to where it started. And so we were not told that
moons orbit planets and the closer the moon, the faster it
moves; we discovered it! But there's more... In 1979, LHS conducted summer institutes for Planetarium Directors in the area of how to implement such lessons. A decade later, 300 teacher-leaders were trained in these summer institutes to bring the experience of "Participatory Oriented Planetariums for Schools" (POPS) to planetariums all over the world. The POPS people also came up with a 12-volume set of books designed to help teacher and planetarium educators implement effective participatory programs and classroom activities. The Volume Titles are Planetarium Educator's Workshop Guide, Planetarium Activities for Schools, Resources for Teaching Astronomy and Earth Science, A Manual for Using Portable Planetariums, Constellations Tonight; Red Planet Mars, Moons of the Solar System [that's the one I have described above; the 11-slide sequence comes with it], Colors from Space, Who "Discovered" America, Astronomy of the Americas, How Big is the Universe? and Stonehenge. If you have a planetarium, and don't have these books, Get them! [Planetarium web site: http://lhs.berkeley.edu/planetarium; volume site http://lhs.berkeley.edu. These unique audience-participatory shows are authored and edited by Cary Sneider, Alan Friedman, and Alan Gould. In my opinion, without these three "hawkers" of "participatory-ness", we converts (yes, I'm one!) wouldn't have polystyrene balls on sticks, sky maps for use in the planetarium for star ID, or any other of the wonderful ideas-spawned by 27 years of educational experimentation at the Holt Planetarium. The Lawrence Hall of Science has been a pioneer in what professional educators call the "discovery," "hands-on or "participatory" technique for learning, specializing in astronomy/space science/mathematics concepts. In 1998, nearly 19,000 people visited LHS's planetariums (including 8500 participants in their Starlab outreach program). However, there is no way to estimate how many people have been influenced by the commitment of Holt's staff to helping people understand the Universe. In my opinion, the POPS philosophy is not only past history, it is the model for the direction that planetariums should go in the new millennium. That's another basis for the title I've laid on the Holt Planetarium. In the September, 1999 issue of the Planetarian, it seems that others agree. The lead article of that issue, entitled "Reflections on Planetarium Design and Operation", was written by Ian McLennan, a prominent former planetarian and avid planetarium-lover. In ending his 'reflections', Ian writes:" I have come full circle, and am convinced it is overdue for ... planetariums to abandon the recorded show, and go back to the basics. This mean having highly motivated, knowledgeable talented, enthusiastic presenters and communicators connect with live audiences in the planetarium theatres of the future. [We need to re-introduce styles] that can assist us in reaching the public at a very high level of engagement-including fundamental and excellent storytelling." If I take another vacation out LHS way, you better bet I will go and see what the masters have come up with at "The Best Planetarium in the Whole World!"
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