Planetarium Utility - Leo Planetaria

From Earth to the heavens above, we cover all

Planetarium Education^™ - K12 Utility

Astronomy is no doubt one of the most interesting subjects for students. They simply love it. It has universal reach, appeal and applicability.

"Twinkle twinkle little star,
How I wonder what you are"

Star gazing is an exhilarating experience. Our fascination and inquisitiveness with astronomy starts right from Kindergarten onward. The mesmerizing night sky has always been a source of inspiration to story tellers, poets, philosophers and last but not the least scientists.

Astronomy is a subject that students simply love but it is not being taught in schools.

In today's modern world, unfortunately we live in starless cities as light pollution in cities simply makes the stars invisible from the night sky. Light pollution, skyscrapers skyline and lifestyle deprive city dwellers especially the students from some of the simplest yet fascinating observations of nature like:

Counting dot stars that one sees with the naked eye and ponder - whether the universe is abysmal?
(Remember! one sees about 3,000 stars at a time with the naked eye and that too from a dark place away from city lights).
Observing stars as they change their position in our skies season after season and as they do so they also repeat themselves year after year thus making us ponder - can there be something in nature that is eternal?
Observing colours in stars (stars just like flowers come in different colours) and ponder - can stars' colours be related to the colours of a candle flame?
Identifying stars by their comparative brightness and ponders - what keeps a star glowing or are they simply glow worms embedded in the night sky?
Making stick figure drawings (ancient constellations) by joining bright and colourful stars with standing, sleeping and slanting lines and imagining all sorts of stories in the night sky just like our forefathers did the world over.
Observing the white band (Milky Way galaxy) running across the sky and ponder - what it really can be?
Observing the sun rise and set and ponder - why it changes its path in our sky season wise?
Looking at an eclipse and ponder - is it a hand of God or just a game of shadows?

The stars, the beauty of the night sky and inquisitiveness associated with it has disappeared from our life primarily due to light pollution and our life style.

Well! We all can identify and classify many things that we see around us. In fact from Kindergarten onward we are taught to identify an endless list of things like fruits, vegetables, flowers, animals, monuments, etc. By the time a child finishes Kindergarten he can identify a penguin and a whale though the chance of actually seeing them live even in a zoo is minuscule. By the time a student finishes middle school he has probably seen bacteria through a microscope and has an idea of the micro-cosmos that exists around him even though if he cannot see it with his eyes directly. Now what about the night sky objects that are very much part of our day to day environment? One will hardly find a student or a teacher who can identify a planet or a star or a constellation or a deep sky object in real sky - real time. And what about the most famous star - the pole star? Very few students/ teachers have ever seen a celestial object through a telescope. Even if they had it was hardly for few seconds (perhaps in a public watch).

There is a conspicuous ignorance about the night sky among students as well as their teachers.

The reason for the conspicuous ignorance of the night sky (poor astronomy literacy level/ Download Test ) among students as well as their teachers the world over is due to the inherent practical limitations/ impediments associated with star gazing. The reasons are:

Observations are to be done outdoors and in night time sky.
Celestial objects, constellations and astronomy events like eclipses, occultation, etc. are date, time and place dependent. They may or may not be visible from your city.
Weather may act as a spoil sport even at the eleventh hour.
Simplest of observations of the heavens above takes days, weeks, months, years and even much longer.
To make the matter worse light pollution makes stars invisible in cities' night skies and they cannot be seen even with a telescope.
And last but not the least a two dimensional surface (Cartesian) like a blackboard / computer screen cannot represent the sky above our head which has dome shape (Polar).

These limitations are overwhelming and have conspired to deprive students the world over of even the simplest but exhilarating experience of Astronomy like finding Pole Star or watching an eclipse or our home galaxy Milky Way. The curiosity that starts in mind and heart of a child at Kindergarten totally dies out by the time he finishes his 15 years of schooling.

The reasons for lack of astronomy literacy among the students in spite of being a lovable subject are due to the inherent practical impediments associated with star gazing.

Read Less...

No doubt Digital Planetarium is a solution for the problems as it is the most effective model of the sky but there are hardly 50 fixed planetariums in India and most of them are analog on the verge of extinction and quite a few of them are already defunct. Moreover fixed planetariums or public planetariums as they are also called irrespective of the technology being used are suitable for general public and tourists as -

A fixed planetarium is primarily designed for general public, families and tourists with no special provision to cater to school students.
In a fixed planetarium mostly shows are plug - and - play with zero human interaction and based on topics that are not class wise customized and at times not even related to astronomy.
There is no support in the form of books or tests that is available as such.
It is usually part of the site seeing tour of a city.
It mostly caters to non homogeneous audience making it almost impossible to cater to class wise need of the school students.
It works on novelty basis and is meant for once in a life time exposure rather than a teaching aid to teach astronomy to school (K12) and college students on regular basis.
It requires tedious field trip.

A student typically visits a city's fixed planetarium once in his entire 15 years of school (K12) life. The visit is part of the excursion trip that the school conducts from time to time. The Planetarium visit is usually clubbed with a visit to zoo/ historical monuments/ fun parks/ malls/ etc

Fixed public planetariums in various cities are not a solution to the problem due to their technology limitations, non homogeneity of audience and scarcity.

However, with the advent of cost effective full dome digital planetarium technology for mobile and fixed domes like Digisky^™ and Digidome^™ and with the blend of right kind of ready-made content / shows/ planetarium sky simulation software, support booklets/ sky charts/ tests and teachers' training the scenario has completely changed in favour of the student community the world over. Rather than building planetariums as institutes the institutes can empower themselves with planetariums and implement in house Planetarium Education^™. A planetarium in a school is a teaching aid that

Provides pragmatic, cost effective, easy, regular and widespread access of astronomy to its students.
Empowers and liberates students and their teachers from the intrinsic practical impediments associated with astronomy by creating state of the art sky simulation scenarios from all over the globe and beyond.
Displays digital ready made plug and play pre recorded customized shows as per the acumen, ethos and need of the students with fruitful interactions from their teachers.
Can further customize and create content through trained teachers at user end and scale it to a desired pedagogical level.
Can provide students with readymade show related booklets and tests that can be printed at the schools' or students' end by downloading from the internet.
Can develop campus based activities for students that are built around the planetarium content / shows/ booklets and motivate students to participate in astronomy Olympiads.
Implement astronomy for the entire school that too in daytime within the schools time table.

In house full dome digital planetarium for a school with suitable readymade shows, sky software, booklets, tests and with provision for customization at user (teachers) end and with teachers training programme can give customized exposure of astronomy to the entire school to a desired pedagogical level.

Planetarium educators typically teach thousands of K-12 students each year. Frequently they serve as resource master, astronomy teachers and trainers for teachers. They see students at varying grade levels throughout their school careers. Planetarium educators have a unique perspective regarding the astronomy concepts appropriate for K-12 students and the sequence in which these concepts should be taught.

It is the fraternity of Planetarium Educators and Science Communicators that are best suited to design Planetarium Shows/ Software/ Booklets/ Tests for students (K12) and to train regular school teachers on Planetarium Education^™.