Norwich school shows off renovated planetarium during grand opening
The $236,655 paid for all-new projection equipment, computers and sound system and 30 new seats in theater-style rows
Norwich — Sixth-grader Samantha Schies used to think the wide, windowless door at the left side of the Teachers’ Memorial Sixth Grade Academy school cafeteria led to a game room for teachers and staff.
She and her technology class students recently learned what’s really behind that door: The newly refurbished school planetarium — complete with new carpet and paint smells, computer-controlled projectors, video screens on the wall and a dome overhead to display moving images of everything from night and daytime skies to I-Max Theater-style videos.
Norwich Public Schools received a grant from the state Department of Administrative Services for school renovations under the Alliance District program to refurbish the planetarium that had been shuttered for 2½ to 3 years and had fallen into disrepair and disuse prior to the closing. The renovations totaling $236,655 included all-new projection equipment, computers and sound system and 30 new seats in theater-style rows rather than in a round format.
Teachers’ Memorial held a grand opening ceremony Wednesday for the planetarium, using a 3-minute demonstration program designed by technology and social studies teacher Andrew Kortfelt to show just a small sampling of what the facility can do.
A clear recording of the
original “Star Wars” theme boomed as the dome showed a twilight sky and sunset that rapidly turned into a dark night sky, as outlines of the Big Dipper and Little Dipper appeared, followed by images of the bears ancient astronomers imagined the stars to depict. Other constellations similarly were outlined. The dome then zoomed in on Orion and the colorful nebula that hangs from the hunter’s belt.
The stars then rotated rapidly as they would through the night, until the sky brightened and the sun rose.
“Awesome!” several sixth-graders said following a preview of the grand opening demonstration during the school day Wednesday.
“It’s cool how we can watch the stars,” sixth-grader Kaleb Wallace said. He can’t do that at night at his home, he said, “because of all the buildings.”
His classmate Nayelis Martinez said that, despite the climate-controlled room with 30 comfortable reclining chairs, “seeing it makes you feel like you’re outside.”
The completion of the eight-month planetarium renovation in August came one month before Norwich received approval of a $4 million federal grant to convert Teachers Memorial and Kelly Middle School into magnet middle schools next year for grades six through eight. Teachers’ Memorial will focus on global studies.
Kortfelt said the planetarium will be put to good use in social studies classes, to teach navigation and for eighthgrade astronomy classes. He projected a globe of the Earth onto the dome, hit a few computer keys to make it rotate and then to show the spread of the ice sheet during an ice age.
The planetarium was built as part of the original Teachers’ Memorial Middle School in 1975, during the height of the space program. Kortfelt had three original newspaper front pages from July 1969 laminated and displayed on one wall. A mural-sized photo of Apollo astronauts on the moon decorates another wall.
As equipment aged and broke down, the planetarium was used less and less over the years before finally closing, as the financially struggling school system had no funding to restore it.
Norwich was included in Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s Alliance District program as a struggling school district, bringing in several million dollars per year for the past six years. The district also has received school capital improvements grants, including the planetarium funding this year.
“I’m really thrilled with bringing in real state-of-theart technology into the building,” Teachers’ Memorial Principal Alexandria Lazzari said.