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Hi Alice,
I don't have answers for many of your questions, but do have a thought on one.
I've worked on planetaria shows that incorporate myths into the program and it can be tricky to maintain the fidelity of the original myth in the context of an astronomy education program. Many of the programs I've seen that incorporate myth tend to strip original intent of the myth by placing the story in a completely new context.
As an example, there's a Kwakiutl myth about a mink character named Born To Be The Sun. In the story the young mink is taken to the sky world to meet his dad and the mink is given the opportunity to wear the super-fun looking sun robe and mask and then to walk the special path to bring daylight to the world. The young mink takes the journey, and it doesn't go well, there are fires, the lakes boil, etc. Without paying attention to the context and original meaning of the story it would be easy to place this into a section about the sun or to have it illustrate astronomical cycles. To do so would entirely miss the aspect of the story which is to teach young people the proper way to behave, and that there are consequences for our actions.
So, I would encourage you to pay attention to the meaning of the myth in its original context, as much as that is possible.
Thanks,
- Len
Len Adams
Health Promotion Specialist
Tacoma-Pierce County Health Dept.
3629 South D Street, MS:336
Tacoma, WA 98418-6813
253 798-6129
Any word you have to hunt for in a thesaurus is the wrong word. There are no exceptions to this rule.
- Stephen King
>>> <[log in to unmask]> 5/16/2008 1:08 PM >>>
ISEN-ASTC-L is a service of the Association of Science-Technology Centers
Incorporated, a worldwide network of science museums and related institutions.
*****************************************************************************
Dear ISEN-L and DOME-L astronomy experts,
I am writing a 20-minute interactive show for our 40-seat planetarium about the appearance of the sky 3.5 million years ago in Africa. I'm taking all these motions into account: daily, annual, precession, proper, and traveling around the Galactic Center with our local group. I realize that this is going to be more of a guess than an exact sky, but it's going to be a wonderful show.
Here are my questions:
- Do you have a planetarium show, or show activities, that talk about how the sky has changed over millions of years? (Dinosaur shows could possibly be useful, but not if they're just focused on the asteroid impact theory).
- Do you know of a program to calculate the change in star positions over 3-4 million years? Most of the planetarium programs I've looked at only go to about 30,000-100,000 years ago.
- Has anyone taught this in a classroom? I might be able to adapt something from that kind of lesson.
- Do you have a source for decently-authentic pre-Christian Ethiopian or Sub-Saharan African star and sky myths?
And, while I'm asking a series of questions - what do you think my title (Planetarium Specialist) means? We'd like to know if it conveys what management wants it to convey.
Thank you, you're all invited to see the show here in Seattle in October when it's finished!
Alice Enevoldsen
Planetarium Specialist
Pacific Science Center
206-443-2883
200 2nd Ave N
Seattle, WA 98109
Life's Boring without Discovery!
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