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_____________ Island Astronomy Institute |
DIGITAL STARLAB PORTABLE PLANETARIUM
In January 2007, after carefully testing and evaluating four other systems, we notified Learning Technologies, Inc. of our selection of their Digital STARLAB for use in our education and outreach programs. LTI’s extensive experience with portable planetariums and their commitment to educational excellence are reflected in the Digital STARLAB's unmatched capabilities.
Schoolchildren and adults were able to see the STARLAB in action during our STARLAB 2007 Fundraising/Demonstration Tour.
Students who step into the driver's seat can traverse the universe on their own terms and design their own observing experiments, freed from the confines of time and space. In June, members of the Institute will be exposed to such explorations at the Grainger Astronomy Conference at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. The Grainger astronomy program, the first to acquire a Digital STARLAB in New England, has students conducting groundbreaking NASA research.
Add Your Star, Cluster, or Galaxy to the Planetarium Outreach Program
To help finance our Digital STARLAB project, every $50 donated to the program will be recognized as one of the planetarium's stars. You may download our pledge flyer to donate by mail, or you may donate online with the Click & Pledge link below. Click & Pledge includes a line item for STARLAB donations:
The number of "stars" contributed in any name will be added together over the life of the program. Any name accumulating ten stars will be recognized as creating a Star Cluster. Every ten Star Clusters will be recognized as a Galaxy:
* Stars—$50 each
* Cluster—10 Stars
* Galaxy—10 Clusters
The Pemetic Elementary School PTO launched the star-forming donation process with an anonymous contribution of one Star Cluster ($500). Since then, matching Star Clusters have been formed by Mt. Desert Elementary School and by Knowles Chiropractic and Wellness Center.
The Island Astronomy Institute is a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation.
The Island Astronomy Institute rented the STARLAB for an exciting demonstration tour the last two weeks in May. As our photos and comments demonstrate, schoolchildren responded with obvious enthusiasm to the presentations!
Starting with Tremont Elementary School on May 11, the Institute visited the four elementary schools on Mount Desert Island, and then headed off the island to Mountain View Elementary School in Sullivan, Peninsula Grammar School in Winter Harbor, and the Ella Lewis School in Steuben. To complement the school events, public demonstrations were held in the Tremont Community Building, Harbor House, MDI YMCA, and Mt. Desert Elementary School and Peninsula Grammar school.
One aim of the tour was to show large donors how the Institute can help the region's schools. At $65,000, the STARLAB is far too expensive for any school in Maine, so we plan to share this resource with as many schools as possible. We are receiving enthusiastic letters of support from the schools that participated in STARLAB 2007; these letters will be included in grant applications to help us purchase this valuable equipment.
We will have additional opportunities to showcase the Digital STARLAB in September 2007, when we will have the equipment on loan for two weeks, thanks to an anonymous donor.
The Institute's STARLAB demonstration tour was the subject of a feature article in the May 16 Bar Harbor Times.
The Institute thanks Acadia Partners for Science and Learning for providing overnight accommodation for STARLAB 2007 tour director Peter Lord for the off-island leg of the trip.
Research Projects
Bonnie Burne is leading a team of Pemetic Elementary School teachers that will use the STARLAB to pilot a service learning project, in which students measure light pollution and see for themselves how dramatically it interferes with starlight. The team seeks to demonstrate how simple it is to shield lights so this does not happen. With luck and funding, this fall students will measure the light interfering with the stars at their own homes. The data they collect will be added to the light pollution map of Mount Desert Island that has been created by College of the Atlantic students Nicholas Bacon and Apoorv Gelhot.