Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
Mostly I have been doing schools in Nairobi, in Mombasa
in Kisumu and now I am doing quite a bit in Central Province.
Today Chuhi Nyoke goes with his planetarium to this school in the
capital Nairobi.
The planetarium consists of an inflatable plastic dome.
Inside there is this projector
mounted with a cylinder
that has child friendly drawings of the stars system surrounding Earth.
This particular cylinder
has
drawings of constellations which are called Havelius constellations.
Havelius was
an astronomer in the seventeenth century.
who designed
who drew constellations. So this is projected
on the surface of the dome inside.
You are going to learn about stars
You're going to learn about planets.
You're going to learn about the moon.
Are you excited?
But I ask you when you go inside to be very very quiet.
So that you could hear and you can learn.
Some of them they do get scared
because of entering a dark place.
But most of them get very excited at entering.
So we make a line so that we don't rush. Make a line.
It's very dark indeed.
But Chuhi's son is there to guide the children through the star systems.
He's trained to work with children from this age. 'I can see a cat.' - You can see a cat.
One of the stories is
about a man
called Orion, say Orion.
Say Orion.
There's only one planetarium like this in the whole country.
But Chuhi can see the interest is growing. 'It's part of Africa Imagine
that we can now participate
in so-called higher sciences.
As wealth increases this kind of appreciation is there. Perhaps
a few years ago
this would have
seemed to people very abstract.
Are you excited?
Chuhi acquired its after having worked in aschool for twenty years.
And he felt it was time for something else. 'Since I had been doing
astronomy
on part time basis I decided to pursue it
and see how i can expand the line
and approach more children.
so I bought a planetarium from South America.
and now I run it as a business.
Then after the star systems the children travel back to Earth and to other
planets. 'Jupiter is
the biggest planet. 'That's Jupiter.'
It's hard to say what the children really make of it.
but Chuhi noticed that they simply love it.
They are very happy and fascinated by
getting a chance to learn about astronomy
and they want more.
That's precisely the reaction we are looking for.
We just want to pick curiosity and from there we hope it takes off.
Say Mars.
Chuhi's hope is that one day some children will become scientists.
There is no developing nation that can move forward without scientists.
Who end up becoming engineers who end becoming doctors of the country doctor who end up becoming
all science related fields.
For the school it's the reason for having the planetarium on the curriculum.
So the children can be aware of what's
around the planet,
what planet we have
and probably become future scientists.
Chuhi meanwhile is working on opening a
permanent planetarium in Nairobi. 'I just hope to see that everyone now
can look up at the sky and
be able to say there is Jupiter. That's Orion .
That's my dream.
Until that day Chuhi and this planetarium
can be seen on the way anywhere in Kenya.