CPS planetarium at RBHS is showing ‘The Planets’ at 11 a.m. and ‘Chronicles of a Journey to Earth’ tomorrow, Oct. 11 at 2 p.m. These showings are available to general audiences and admission is free.
“‘Chronicles of a Journey to Earth’ takes you on a brief tour of the solar system,” Melanie Knocke, planetarium manager said. “It touches on all the planets in our solar system but focuses on the earth, moon and sun’s relationship. ‘The Planets’ meanwhile goes more into depth on each planet, and explains how the solar system was formed. With a limited library of shows.”
Knocke said she chooses shows that haven’t been used recently and groups together a show for younger as well as older audiences. However, most shows and programs are for elementary school students.
“We hope [to get] them interested in science,” Knocke said. “We now have the capability of showing shows that are not just about astronomy … there are other shows out there that address other disciplines so that we can use the planetarium to encompass all the sciences now.”
The interest of science, though aimed mostly at younger kids, is meant to impact high schoolers, too. Lindsay Morrison said working as a teachers assistant in the planetarium has made her more interested in astronomy.
“When I look up at the sky at night, I think, “Hey, I know these constellations,” and I’ll point them out to the friends I’m with,” Morrison said. “It’s cool that I see these things [astronomy] in real life and how they directly affect me.”
The planetarium faculty people will realize “how science is everywhere, and we are constantly using something due to science,” Knocke said. For instance, she said even cell phones are based of astronomy because of the limited space conditions of the Apollo program and that it’s important to register surroundings with the science back grounds they came from in order to further explore that “innate curiosity,” she said.
“We want to show the younger kids that science can be fun and [we want] to make them curious about the show,” Knocke said. ”We don’t expect them to remember every single thing they hear in the show, we just hope they have fun and remember that fun as they pursue science later.”
By Kat Sarafianos
