Kindness with Universal Appeal

By Shannon Holbrook

Forty-eight tiny eyes refuse to blink as stars unveil above them on a massive planetarium screen. Gasps of “ohs” and “wows” and “didyou-see-thats” permeate the theater as their teachers chuckle. When the show ends, an audible disappointed “awww” fills the room and the students exit. As they pass a table marked “Free” loaded with clothes, shoes, and snacks, they stop suddenly, and grab juice boxes, cookies, and sneakers with the same “ohs” and “wows” they just spent on the stars.

Here is where science meets goodwill. The East Kentucky Science Center (EKSC) and Varia Planetarium of Big Sandy Community and Technical College in Prestonsburg, Kentucky is where visitors can get a stellar education and a helping hand. The center’s educational outreach often comes with food, clothing, and household supplies through its partnership with Christian Appalachian Project’s (CAP) Operation Sharing Program. This is only one of the many nonprofits in Eastern Kentucky where CAP provided total gifts in kind valued at over $60 million in the past fiscal year, and $105 million total across 13 Appalachian states, Missouri, and Arkansas.

“We give anything we get through the program to anyone who comes in,” said Susan Scott-Goble, EKSC’s educator. For example, a group of elementary students may come in for a planetarium show and leave with snacks or clothing they need. The small staff’s service goes beyond their walls, too.

The East Kentucky Science Center and Varia Planetarium at Big Sandy Community and Technical College serves as a hub of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education in Eastern Kentucky. The facility offers an interactive exhibit hall, planetarium, and popular laser light shows. It features a 40-foot dome and the Spitz Sci-Dome projection system, one of only two dozen in the world, and the Varia Planetarium has the state's only GOTO Star Projector, which brings space exploration to life for visitors.

“We also take things to neighboring churches and share with low-income campus students who don’t have food,” she said. “Our number one goal as a science center is to make ourselves accessible and family friendly.”

The center’s staff prides themselves in customizing and presenting educational programming for a wide variety of audiences. They also host multiple events, like the annual East Kentucky Regional Science and Engineering Fair for fourth through 12th graders who win first place at their school fairs. Students can compete beyond regional to state and possibly on to an international fair, where incentives reach $75,000. Scott-Goble stresses the fair can fit curriculum needs across the region’s 15 counties. “It covers writing, math, charts, science, presenting, oral skills, and networking. Students get to see what others are creating and it inspires them,” she explained.

The center has partnered with NASA to host speakers and events like the Hubble Traveling Exhibit. They present space camps, a Halloween event, a weather day, and host tour groups. They hope to start evening programs like stargazing and bring more exhibits soon.

“We care so much about the center, and we want to build on what we do here,” she concluded.

(above) Visitors got a sneak peek of the NASA Hubble Traveling Exhibit at the East Kentucky Science Center and Varia Planetarium during a VIP reception.

Photo courtesy of The Daily Independent

Bringing NASA to Eastern Kentucky

According to Kentucky’s Cabinet for Economic Development, aerospace is one of Kentucky’s major industries.

So, it’s no surprise that foundations for higher learning, like Big Sandy Community and Technical College’s East Kentucky Science Center and Varia Planetarium, have forged relationships with NASA to attract and make aerospace education accessible to its residents.

Also, the center is a member of NASA’s Museum and Informal Education Alliance, which means it uses NASA educational products, images, visualizations, videos, and information in its educational and public programs and exhibits.

The center educates the community on space exploration through multiple venues, whether it’s hosting summer space camps, attracting national exhibits, or building a repertoire of diverse astronomical shows that immerse people into space, literally.

Past Space Exploration Camps have included hands-on activities like building and launching rockets, as well as making star finders, gravity defying balloons, and scale models of the solar system and comets.

The center is the only Kentucky venue to have hosted NASA’s national Hubble Traveling Exhibit. In 2019, the immersive 2,200-square-foot exhibit landed in Prestonsburg, Kentucky to share the Hubble mission and introduce the James Webb Space Telescope to regional visitors. It features a hands-on experience and images and data taken by Hubble of planets, galaxies, and regions around black holes that many people may not have access to unless they live close to a metropolitan city.

“These opportunities wouldn’t be available to us if we didn’t have a connection to NASA and the commitment to our community to bring them here,” said Susan Scott-Goble, the center's educator. “People want it, too, because we’ve had exceptional turnouts for these exhibits, like when NASA sent a representative to give a talk during the live observing session of the Great American Solar Eclipse Viewing of 2017 - there were so many people here you couldn’t move.”

Among the planetarium’s NASA-focused programming is To Space and Back, a show about space exploration and discovery; IBEX, an in-depth look at NASA’s Interstellar Boundary Explorer (IBEX) mission and how IBEX is mapping our solar system’s boundary; and Astronaut, what it takes to become one both from science and an astronaut’s point of view.

This programming brings space exploration and education one step closer for Appalachians who may make mankind’s giant leap one day.