Rowan’s Edelman Planetarium a resource for the community

More than 6,000 K-12 students travel each year to Rowan University’s Edelman Planetarium to take a trip out of this world.

The students are visitors from the tri-state area eager to learn about the solar system, space and beyond.

And the Planetarium, with its state-of-the-art full-dome theater, is just the place to do that.

Reaching the public

“The way I see it, there are three legs for a public university—the education of students, faculty research and public outreach. This is one way Rowan reaches out to the public,” said Keith Johnson, planetarium director.

With the decline in science education in some school districts, Johnson wants to stimulate childhood interest in the subject. He uses the Edelman as a resource to engage the community through educational outreach programs.

Johnson’s goals are to encourage students to get excited about science, demonstrate that they can understand it and teach them facts about astronomy that they might not learn in a classroom. Through Edelman’s educational outreach programs, Johnson shows students that the universe consists of so much more than meets the eye.

Two types of shows

The Planetarium offers two types of shows during the school presentations. Johnson creates realistic computer-generated programs to make students will feel like they are in space. The Planetarium allows students to take a tour of the International Space Station, look at Earth from the solar system and watch as the constellations take form when the sun sets. The other presentations involve education and entertainment, including professionally produced films like “Perfect Little Planet.”

“I’ve been trying for the past couple of years to expand beyond the bounds of traditional astronomy education, so long as that is not neglected. A digital theater like ours can do so much in education and entertainment in so many different ways that it would be a shame not to make use of it,” said Johnson.

Rowan alumi Jean and Ric Edelman provided funding for the Planetarium in 2004 when it was built. The Edelmans also funded an addition and admission costs to allow teachers to bring their students to the Planetarium for free.

Now showing

The Planetarium will offer the public show of “Season of Light” until Dec. 21. The traditional winter holiday show portrays how humans deal with and celebrate the frigid nights of the dark season. The presentation will explain the origins of familiar holiday customs, why winter nights are so long and dark, and what the “Star of Bethlehem” might have been. For more information regarding show times, check out http://www.rowan.edu/planetarium/schedule/.