Spending Time Under the Stars at Brookside Elementary School

Excerpt from article:

When it comes to giving their students a hands-on learning experience, Baldwin knows how to make it happen. The district partnered with the Cradle of Aviation Museum to bring the solar system to its fourth-grade students on Nov. 20.

The museum’s portable planetarium came to Brookside Elementary School as a fun, engaging way to wrap up their current science unit of study. From light pollution to the mythological stories of the constellations, students had an opportunity to learn about all things space, stars and sky. The interactive experience had them in awe, and audible “wows” could be heard from outside the dome throughout the 45-minute presentation, with hands constantly shooting up to ask questions.

Not only did the planetarium give the students a deeper understanding of what they have been learning in class, but it also ignited a passion in some of them for science.

“It made me want to learn more about (what) we did in there, because it’s really interesting and fun,” fourth-grader Alana Mendoza said. “It might be a fun thing to do when I grow up.”

For the museum, the goal of bringing the portable planetarium into schools is to keep the stories written in the stars alive. “Our educators share constellation stories and teach (students) the skills to find constellations and planets in their own backyard,” Kerri Kilker, the museum’s planetarium manager, said. “We hope they take those lessons home and share them with their friends and families, just like people have done for thousands of years.”

Baldwin district officials agreed that they want to immerse their students in learning experiences outside the traditional classroom setting, which is what led them to bring in the Cradle of Aviation. “We share a philosophy here in Baldwin that it’s very important for students to see how their learning is applied to real-life situations,” Superintendent Anthony Mignella said.

Brookside Elementary Principal Jeanette Rottkamp said she hoped the students take away that this experience is also a form of learning. “This is the type of learning that we want students to explore,” she said. “It’s not just what’s on the computer or what teachers [are showing them] on a slideshow.”

Read the full article online in the Long Island Herald>>