Education Department
Mike Shanahan, Director of Education
Aloha! Do you know that our education department serves about 50,000 school children per year on field trips and outreach programs to the schools, and delivers public programming to 300,000 general public visitors each year?
Our team is working on developing new programs for school children and the general public and is participating in many collaborative grant-funded projects with other museums and educational institutions.
Fulfill one of our wishes to help us serve Hawai‘i's keiki better..
Thanks!
- Computers for education staff
A number of staff computers in the Education Department are on their last legs and this support would be a big help, allowing us to replace old computers before they break down.
$2000 each - Slide Projector
Planetariums still use slide projectors for showing still images, even though these are dying out almost everywhere else. We currently cannot show all of the images for our planetarium shows since we have six fewer projectors than needed.
$400 each - Constellation Outline Projector
This device projects a picture - for example, of a Big Bear over the stars of the Big Bear constellation. The public often has a hard time seeing how the stars of Hercules make the picture of a hero, or the stars of Draco make a dragon. By projecting a picture of the mythological creature over the stars of its constellation, people really "get" the concept. With eight of these projectors, we could show constellation outlines for all of the major constellations of each season - but even one projector would be a big help.
$400 each - Meteor Shower Effect
This projector simulates meteors streaking across the sky. Hawai‘i has many good meteor showers each year, and with our great weather, we get a better view than most places. This effect would allow us to prepare the public for what to see.
$730 - Aurora Borealis Effect
We never see aurora in Hawai‘i, since they only occur closer to the poles. This projector would give our audience members a chance to experience this (for us) exotic sight!
$730 - Solar Eclipse Effect
This device simulates the awesome effect of the moon blocking out the sun. It would help us prepare our audiences for partial eclipses visible here in 2009 and 2010, and promote the total solar eclipse over southern Polynesia in 2010.
$800