Post by Pete Bruecken: Pete has been teaching science for 40 years, the last 24 years at Bettendorf High School. He also serves as the the Director of our Planetarium. Next year he will move to the position of Instructional Coach. You can follow him on twitter @PeterBruecken
I have been teaching physics for 40 years, 24 of them have
been spent at Bettendorf High School on the corner of Interstate 80 and the
Mississippi River. One of the reasons I
came here was because Bettendorf High School was the ONE school in Iowa that
had a planetarium and I thought the people who put a planetarium in their
school must be pretty special so I went for the job and got it. I also was, unknown to me at the time,
handpicked by the previous physics teacher and namesake to the planetarium,
Donald Schaefer. So, 24 years ago, my
family and I made the trek from the west coast of Iowa (Missouri River) to the
east coast of Iowa (Mississippi River) making us true bi-coastal Midwesterners.
When I took the job, it was made clear to me that teaching was
the #1 priority and the planetarium was secondary; sort of like coaching is
secondary to teaching for athletic coaches.
After all, I was the assistant director and had an awesome collaborator,
Pete Sweedy, to bring me up to speed on how to run the
"instrument". The duties
included running scheduled programs for classes, repairing and maintaining the
"instrument", creating new programs and running live programs for community
groups. I had to learn the
constellations, the electronics that ran them, the folklore of the celestial
bodies and work the "instrument" to simulate them. When I took the job I thought I was
ready. I had astronomy courses and knew
my way around the sky but it took me years to get to a point where I could
perform the duties in a seamless manner.
Fortunately, I had Pete
Sweedy to bring me along while I learned
the systems. I was affectionately known
as "RePete".
About 5 years after I took the job, it became clear that the
planetarium should be used to meet the needs of the elementary schools as well
as the high school. It was then that I
realized that the "instrument" wasn't the focus. The "instrument" wasn't why the
founders of the building in the 1970's invested in the dome and the
"classroom real estate" for a planetarium. They invested in this facility for the
students that would benefit from it. It
was to be an instructional tool that would keep our attention on the
development and interest of our students. How was I going to make the transition
from focusing on running the "instrument", to focusing on the
students? Well, that's where the story
gets interesting...
Our assistant superintendent came to the science team with a
problem. It seemed the elementary
teachers were teaching different science topics in different grades at our 6
elementary schools so certain topics were being repeated and the curriculum was
not consistent. Pete Sweedy suggested
we give planetarium programs to the elementary schools as field trips and make
the programs the same for each grade. We
chose particular astronomical programs for each grade that would match their
curricular needs. This idea helped align
the elementary curriculum. It worked
pretty well and morphed into providing pure chemistry and pure physics shows
that didn't have anything to do with astronomy!
The planetarium became sort of a science center for the elementary
schools. The elementary students loved
coming to the planetarium as a field trip and the district supported the bus
rides and the time needed to run the programs.
The next evolution came at the high school. We have block scheduling and were faced with
broadening the choices students had for
elective courses. Our current assistant
director and I thought we could offer a course in "Planetarium
Productions" so we could work with high school students to make a
planetarium show. This seemed to be a
good way to add another dimension to the planetarium.
This proved to be a great idea as most students had fond
memories of coming to the planetarium when they were in elementary school and
could now work the other side of that experience. Due to an upgrade, we had moved into the
digital age with digital projectors replacing some of the old slide projectors. The digital media enabled students to use
their videos and digital pictures instead of slide photography. This advance brought the students closer to
making a successful program. The course
focused the talents of our students on creating a program for other
students. Again, the focus was on the
students.
BHS Planetarium
These programs were tailored to the specific needs of our
school system. The students that experienced the programs were interested in
hearing and seeing what their peers produced and were impressed with the work
that had been done. There is just
nothing like 5th graders seeing what high school students do for them. It seemed that bringing the planetarium to
life this way exceeded the founder's vision for the planetarium as it was
reborn with the work of our students.
Now I'm not a fancy person (I drive a 38 year old car), but I
think when the lights go down and the 40 year old star "instrument"
puts the millennia-old stars on the dome, the people who went to the trouble of
putting that facility in our school would be smiling. It has added a uniqueness to the experiences
of the people who have trekked through the Bettendorf school system. Much credit is due the school boards,
accountants, administrators and staff that have not laid it on the chopping
block of budget cuts and fiscal fatalities.
I would like to think the planetarium stands as a symbol of today's
commitment to the same paradigm the founders had in mind when they put it into
the school 40 years ago. It keeps us
focused on the educational experiences of our students by making those
experiences creative in all subject areas.
The planetarium accompanies the life-long learning of kindergartner and grandparent
alike. They gaze at the stars through
fresh eyes in elementary school or watch a program on The Christmas Star,
Shakespeare or Sky Watchers of Ancient Mexico.
They write scripts, narrate or put graphics in their story as they
discover more about themselves through the programs they create. The "instrument" is what it was
designed to be, a learning tool for our whole community, as each person finds
themselves in the stars.