News
Welcome to the Discovery Dome
Scott Wagar
12/03/2013
Dakota College at Bottineau hosted NASA’s Discovery Dome for three days last week which gave numerous individuals in the area an opportunity to experience an unique planetarium.
The Discover Dome is a portable, digital theater which is often referred to as a portable planetarium. The dome grants individuals an educational opportunity through films on a number of subjects dealing with space, nature, life and technology.
“Whether it’s soaring through the galaxy or driving monster trucks on the moon, the Discovery Dome takes audiences on a journey not possible anywhere else,” stated the Houston Museum of Natural Science in association with NASA. “Our portable inflatable dome theater brings stars, planets, dinosaurs, volcanoes, tornadoes, DNA and much more.”
Angie Bartholomay, science instructor at DCB, who is responsible for acquiring the Discover Dome for DCB, has spent the past weeks traveling around the local area and state presenting NASA’s portable theater to students and the public alike.
“Since the middle of October, two thousands plus students in north central North Dakota have seen a discovery dome program because of this project,” Bartholomay said. “Incredibly, over 90 percent of the students who participated in the Discovery Dome have never been to a planetarium before this.”
From Nov. 25-27 the Discovery Dome was at DCB and held a number of events for individuals to enjoy on its campus. On the first day, the college held a friends, family and community night for the general public, which saw good attendance and gave the local folks the chance to see films on space, time, earth, ice fields, black holes and dinosaurs.
Outside of the general public, students from the Bottineau and Dunseith school districts, along with DCB’s students, took part in the Discovery Dome.
These students took in a number of films and were given the chance to fly through the human body, see the origins of earth begin, survive a F5 tornado, experience space and so much more.
Patricia Rice, the creator of the Discover Dome, is the director of Rice Space Institute at Rice University and e-Planetarium, which is a women-owned small business that markets shows, software and planetarium technology created by the Immersive Earth project and its partners.
Immersive Earth is a NASA funded project partnership between the Houston Museum of Natural Science, Rice University, Carnegie Museum of Natural History, HomeRun Pictures, Elumenati and Sky-Scan Inc., which created the digital, dome planetarium shows and software at an affordable price.
With the dome, individuals can have the planetarium experience, especially those individuals who live in rural areas.
Batholomay stated that the three-day event was well attended and people walked away from the Discovery Dome stating they had a good experience.
The event was sponsored by NASA, Dakota College at Bottineau, Turtle Mountain Community College, The North Dakota Space Grant Consortium and North Central Education Cooperative.