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Planetarium projects cellular universe
Students drawn to the interactive show
June 25, 1996
Web posted at: 12:00 p.m. EDTFrom Correspondent Dick Wilson
PITTSBURGH (CNN) -- Those funny-looking 3-D glasses that hit their popular zenith in 1950s movie houses and have made sporadic reappearances since are aiding science education at a planetarium in Pittsburgh.
Seventh-graders on a field trip to the Carnegie Science Center's planetarium were treated to a 3-D trip through the living cell, not the infinite cosmos.
Planetariums exist to show people the stars, but this groundbreaking program takes students on an interactive journey into the basic building block of complex life forms. (519K QuickTime movie)
In the Carnegie's "Journey Into the Living Cell," the focus is on the diversity, wonder and miracle of biology. Images projected onto the planetarium's hemispheric ceiling bring to life an alien world of cellular activity that could just as easily fit into a science-fiction film as a living organism.
Children love the "science fact" brought vividly to life on the giant canvas of the planetarium dome. The microscopic world of the cell floating above their heads is far more captivating than the pages of a dog-eared textbook.
That was the project's goal, according to Dr. Lansing Taylor. The developers of "Journey Into the Living Cell" thought that dramatic images of living, moving cells would interest impressionable 8-to-12-year-old biology students.
And for those who don't understand the fundamental science behind the show, it is still a fulfilling experience. The program touches you inside with a ballet of music and images. By the end of the show you know you have seen something beautiful about the science of your body.
An interactive experience
To bring the beauty and science of the show to life, its creators relied on an array of computers and projectors and the expertise of planetarium director Martin Ratcliffe.
Ratcliffe is quite proud of the Digistar system that allows full hemispherical projection of real-time video and graphics. The director controls the whole gee-whiz system from a simple graphic display terminal.
But what makes the experience so involving for students is that it is interactive. Audience members can control the movement of molecules in the cells, learning lessons about cellular activity in the process.
School children participating in the cellular journey vote on the direction molecules move within cells through the use of infrared signals to sensors in the dome.
Putting kids in the thick of cellular activity at the Carnegie Science Center is making the journey inside the living cell a fun learning experience in a subject not usually viewed as a treat by today's video generation.
Developers at the Carnegie are not standing still with their innovation. "Journey Into the Living Cell" will soon be available to planetaria around the world, and a look inside the human brain is just around the corner.
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