ASTRONOMY
Rensselaer Creates New Kid's
Molecularium Show & Takes It on the Road
National Science Foundation grant to fund expansion
of the project Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has been awarded
a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to expand
its Molecularium project and take it global. The animated program
is designed to spark children's interest in learning about
atoms and molecules using planetariums in a new way for science
education.
The Molecularium project is part of the educational
and outreach program of Rensselaer's NSF-funded Nanoscale Science
and Engineering Center (NSEC) for Directed Assembly of Nanostructures.
Rensselaer's NSEC is directed by Richard Siegel, the Robert
W. Hunt Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at Rensselaer.
Rensselaer
will use the $659,291 NSF grant to produce two 20-minute
multimedia shows intended to captivate students in grades
K-3 while exploring the states of matter—solid,
liquid, and gas—and the inner workings of a living cell.
The Molecularium show is designed to be projected on a dome
planetarium theater, but instead of taking people from earth
to space, the show will take viewers on an audio-visual journey
through the molecular-scale world.
“We want to excite children about the world
of science, and the Molecularium program is a tremendous tool
to ignite their curiosity,” said Shirley Ann Jackson,
president of Rensselaer. “Our pilot Molecularium program
was well received, and the National Science Foundation's additional
support enables us to dramatically enhance our initial concept
and take it nationwide.”
“We are pioneering the use of dome theaters
for molecular science education and have brought together a
team of researchers, artists, museum curators and educators,
technology designers, elementary school teachers, students,
and professors to reach our goal,” said Linda Schadler,
professor of materials science and engineering at Rensselaer
and executive producer of the Molecularium project. “We
are designing the shows to be available to planetariums large
and small all across the country and around the world.”
Shekhar
Garde, assistant professor of chemical engineering said that
the first show, Riding Snowflakes, is designed to bring to
life atoms and molecules as characters that can bond together
in order to make all the materials in the universe. The storyline
will explain that everything is made of atoms and molecules
and that the mobility and structure of gases, liquids, and
solids are distinctly different. The audience will be introduced
to hydrogen, oxygen, and carbon as they explore materials
of all kinds while traveling in a ship that can span length
scales from light years to nanometers, as well as move in
both space and time. The characters will visit clouds, raindrops,
the ocean, and space and will be transformed from gases to
liquids to solids.
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute was founded at
Troy, N.Y., in 1824. It is the nation's oldest technological
university.#