Muskegon Charter school students get biology lesson in a dome Planetarium allows teachers choose from a variety of programs

By Megan Hart The Muskegon Chronicle MUSKEGON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) -- The "igloo" in the WayPoint Academy lunch room looked like it should hold about two people, and maybe a sled dog. Still, entire classes fit inside, to explore not the ways of the Alaskan natives, but the far reaches of the universe. WayPoint, a charter school in Muskegon Township, rented an inflatable dome theater recently to get students excited to learn about the world around them, Director Karen Buie-Jenkins said. Some students at WayPoint have struggled with math and science, she said. "(The shows) focus on the MEAP standards, but it gives them a visual for the concepts they're learning in science," she said. "Technology has changed things so much that kids are very visual now, and need a hands-on, visual experience." The advantage of bringing the planetarium to the school is that teachers can choose from a variety of programs, instead of whatever is showing at the moment, she said. Eighth-grade science teacher Brooke Rimedio said her students are starting to study atoms and molecules and she hoped the show would reinforce the concepts. "It's a different way to see things visually versus the textbook," she said. The dome was inflated in the corner of the lunchroom. It has no bottom, so the students sat on the concrete floor around the projector at the center of the dome. The inside is made of the same gray material as a movie screen, dome technician Eric Bradford said, making it easier to project the shows. There also is a small flat-screen TV outside for students who feel claustrophobic or are afraid of the dark, he said. Bradford works for Grand Rapids-based Kramer International, which owns the dome and buys the rights to show films that are common in major planetariums. Some were produced by NASA and are narrated by actors Tom Hanks and Harrison Ford. About half are about space, while others explore weather, evolution and the human circulatory system. "Unfortunately they're not very popular, so most kids don't make it out to a planetarium," he said. "I think people don't really know what a planetarium is. They think it's just stars on a screen." Possibly the worst example was a girl at a previous show who wanted to know where the flowers were; she thought it was a "plant-atarium," Bradford said. The maximum occupancy is 45 elementary school kids, or about 35 older students, Bradford said. Most groups are engaged in the programs, he said, and he hasn't had trouble with kids trying to pop the dome. It isn't airtight anyway, so a puncture wouldn't bring it down, and it's not heavy enough to trap anyone. "It takes a pretty rough school for them not to behave in there," he said. "It weighs 70 pounds and it's the size of a small house. It's light like a bed sheet." Ninth-grader Justin Brown said the show about the sinking of the Titanic was "pretty good." "I already knew a lot of the stuff, but it was presented in a different way," he said. Not all students were impressed, though. Eighth-grader Reonna Moore said she was disappointed the presentation wasn't in 3D, and questioned some of her classmates' hygiene after sitting in a small space with them. "I liked it, but it wasn't really 'Wow,'" she said. Buie-Jenkins said the experience was well worth the $1,600 it cost to rent the dome, and she plans to raise money to bring it back. The funds to host the dome theater were taken from a $30,000 grant from Muskegon-Oceana Community Action Partnership to bring technology to students. "We will find a way to bring this back every year," she said. Published: Wed, Sep 28, 2011