Most Humbling Moment...

[Davine_Chi]

One of my most humbling moments was when I heard from a coworker that his son was learning about astronomy in school and he asked about “that star program” that I showed him a few months prior. I directed him to where he could find it, and he was able to transfer the file to his flash drive for installation on his home computer. The next day he came to me and told me how much his son enjoyed that program, and that he wanted very badly to take it to class (show and tell, no doubt). A few days passed and in conversation he tells me, “Well, Celestia made it to the classroom.” I was really shocked and surprised to hear this, despite his efforts to quell his son’s eagerness to take the program to school. Regardless, it was truly a humbling moment to know that all the other students would get a chance to see this wonderful program, what it is capable of illustrating, and to witness the sheer magnitude of space. This offers them a chance to see and explore the cosmos from a breathtaking vantage and with such ease. Many thanks to all those involved in the creation of this magnificent program and may you continue to share your talents with the world.

[selden]

It's great to know that Celestia is making inroads into more educational settings.

Thanks for sharing that news with us.

[ElChristou]

Yep, nicely said.Tx!

[duds26]

That's some great news for Celestia.
What is the name of the school that is now using Celestia and where is it located?

[Davine_Chi]

Thanks to everyone for the replies. As for where the school is located, it is somewhere in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. No doubt plenty of students will get their hands on this great program. =)

[fsgregs]

Davine:

It is great that your friend has gotten Celestia into a school. However, putting it there and using it ... are two different things. Most teachers have no idea how to use it, what keys to press, etc. They have no lesson plans to use and in my experience, few of them have the time to try writing their own. If they do learn Celestia through the Users Guide, they then need to convey that info to their students, or use it only in the classroom via and LCD projector.

The basic Celestia program download is primarily limited to the objects in our solar system, a few simple spacecraft models, and the galaxies/globular clusters. However, hundreds of additional detailed add-ons totaling over 18 GB in data have been created by a very gifted community of volunteers to bring additional sights to Celestia for use in education. That includes over 50 spacecraft, dozens of nebula, every star type in the complete star cycle (from nebula through black holes), visualizations of celestial events such a supernova, formation of the moon, the future of our solar system, entire exotic and fictional alien civilizations, etc.

Point your friend to the education page of the Celestia Motherlode, and to other add-on sites outlined in this forum, to download many many add-ons that can bring Celestia to life. The education page in fact, offers over 40 hours of detailed lesson plan journeys through Celestia space. Students LOVE taking these journeys on their own, via a school computer lab. They are even offered in several languages.

Regards

Frank

[duds26]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minneapolis

North-Center USA, I see.

Biggest town of Minnesota.

Capital is actually St-Paul.

Interesting situation, such a double-town.