From Deirdre Kelleghan
St Peters National School
The 20th Anniversary of the launch of The Hubble Space Telescope was celebrated in St Peters National School Walkinstown Dublin 12 on April 23rd. ESA sent me an enormous print of the Carina nebula, the celebration image for public outreach. A drawing workshop to inspire and educate was the way to go. That morning the boys of 5th class at St Peters listened very carefully to my simple explanation of this visually powerful image. The boys used soft pastels on black paper and lovely blending and feathering drawing methods to capture the swirling clouds of gas and dust 7,500 light years from this planet. Great energy and use of color produced some beautiful drawings, it was a very special event.
A few quotes from some of the children who took part in my workshop:
'Its amazing to draw this huge thing on my small page'
'I never saw an interesting big huge picture like that in my life'
'It's interesting to think that it is really cool that that can morph different planets and trees and animals that we could be livin on and stuff.'
'The stars are bright in Science and they are going to make us bright too'
'It's weird that its up there and we can't even see it.'
Thank you Deirdre for this great workshop and report!
Links:
Picasa album of the pupils' drawings
St Brigids National School
On Friday April 30th Deirdre Kelleghan and the Hubble 20th Anniversary print visited Jane Ahern’s 4th class at St Brigids National School in Greystones Co Wicklow. Deirdre was invited to showcase the Hubble image by Ann Lee the class Special Needs Assistant. The image which is 5 ft X 8ft shows a section of the Carina Nebula in fantastic detail. The Carina Nebula is one of the places in our galaxy within which new stars are born, flexing the tremendous power of nature, creating new solar systems with awesome energy. The image was captured by the Hubble Telescope’s new camera which was recently installed by space shuttle astronauts on a service mission.
The energy and enthusiasm in the classroom was tangible as the children absorbed the story of The Hubble Space Telescope and the Carina Nebula. They listened well and learned a little about star formation, star birth, the lives of stars and what happens when stars have finished burning their fuel. The children asked great questions and were full of smiles; their interest was shining as brightly as the stars we were talking about.
Souvenir Hubble cards were given to each child and an invitation to write a poem about stars was the creative challenge give to these attentive sparkling children.
Quotes from some of the children after the presentation:
' The picture is one sixth of the actual cloud'
'Its a giant twister of energy'
'Its like a hospital and stars are been born in it '
' Its a giant star recycling centre '
All the poems written by the children will go on show in a Hubble Celebration Exhibition in Greystones Library and run till the end of May.
Delgany Brownies
On May 4th Deirdre Kelleghan took the huge Hubble print to visit Delgany Brownies for a drawing workshop. The children sat around the image of the Carina nebula and listened to the story of the Hubble Space Telescope. Each child was handed a grain of rice and was asked to imagine all of our solar system packed inside it, to give them some idea of the scale of the Carina Nebula. When the rice grain was placed on the print it was almost lost but the point was made and understood by these young active brownies.
They visually absorbed the wonderful colours and energy exploding from the nebula on the floor in front of them. Wonderful drawings were created with terrific enthusiasm. All the work produced by the Brownies and by St Brigids National School will be on show at Greystones library until the end of May.
Link to the slideshow of the Brownies' drawings
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