Who said learning can’t be fun?

On Saturday I dragged the museum’s outreach stuff and a hands-on activity to the Kalamazoo Valley Museum for Astronomy Day, hosted by the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society. This was definitely the coolest astronomy event ever! In addition to my very cool, exciting, and fun Life on Mars experiment children could make telescopes, Big Dipper clocks, and planispheres. There was a solar observing session outside the museum and an evening observing session at the Kalamazoo Nature Center. The very talented Michael Francis preformed, “The Starry Messenger,” sharing with the audience Galileo’s most recent discoveries, as of the early 17th century. He also took questions while remaining in character!

The very smart and funny, Dr. Phil Plait, was the keynote speaker. He is the author of Bad Astronomy and Death from the Skies!, both are well worth the read. His blog is also worth a read. His talk was excellent, plus he’s a nice guy!



I encourage everyone to pick up a copy of his books and check out the blog. Phil is definitely doing his part to make science education fun!

Thanks to the Kalamazoo Astronomical Society, the Kalamazoo Valley Museum, and the Kalamazoo Nature Center for a very fun day!