Saturday, January 26, 2013

The Test Tactile Follow-Along Little Star Book is Complete!

Just a quick update today.  I finished all the molds for the pages of the show (I still have to finish up the constellations), and I've now printed a page from every mold!  Phew, did it get hot in my cubical, but it was great to see how every page came out in the Braillon.  I know I need to tweak some things, but I also need to have them vetted by their audience.  Hopefully soon I will have some pre-K through 2nd graders giving me feedback and testing them (and the plush characters)!  I thought for this blog post it would be fun to post a video of how I make each page:





I hope you enjoy it!  I also have a picture of some of the pages as well:


There is a green mat sitting on an off-white L-shaped desk.  On the green mat sits a gladware container that is empty, white measuring spoons, a can of salt, a white scrub brush with red bristles, a white strainer, a purple and black planetarium flyer and a tan metal lunch box with red boomerang shapes on it.  Also on the mat are several pages of the book that have been formed in the manila Braillon paper.  Each one features Little star meeting another character.  There is also a page sitting in the EZ-Brailler starting to curl on the edges from all the heat.  The EZ Brailler is a black box and the top half slides back when pushed by a red handle sticking off the front side of the top half.  On the front side of the bottom half is a red plaque with two silver and black heat control knobs, a black toggle switch, a silver button and green, orange and blue lights.
Several pages of the book



Thursday, January 24, 2013

Mr. Star goes to Washington..

Little Star got to make a trip to Washington D.C. with me recently (I had to go for my Masters in Museum Studies Capstone Seminar) and boy did we have an adventure!  One of the most special moments for us though, was meeting Dr. Elizabeth Eder in person.  She is the reason that Feeling the Stars - our accessiblity program for the McDonnell Planetarium exists.  It was for her class that I wrote the original proposal.  It was an exciting moment to introduce Dr. Eder to Little Star in person.


In front of a bookshelf holding many books that are primarily blue and red stands two women.  The woman on the left is this blog's author, about 5'4", blonde and smiling.  She is wearing a grey 3/4 sleeved shirt with a black jumper and a maroon scarf.  She has in black dangling earrings and is holding a manila-colored Braillon page that will go to the Little Star That Could Tactile Follow-Along Book (page 1 - Little Star is born in a cloud of gas and dust, with Little Star shown as a circle with rays radiating out from him and a cloudy nebula around him - he is smiling).  On the right is a woman of about 5' 7" who has long dark hair and is also smiling.  She is wearing a grey plaid jacket, has small silver hoop earrings and a diamond ring on her left hand and a silver necklace with a silver hoop on it.  In her hands is the Little Star plush, a Yellow Star with a round nose, big brown eyes, plump cheeks and a large smile.  He has some rays jetting out from him as well.
Little Star meets Dr. Eder
Little Star also saw a few other sites, but the other highlight was going to the Smithsonian with me to meet the Director of Accessibility for the entire Smithsonian, Beth Ziebarth.  She is an amazing woman (the entire department was very kind - as was every Smithsonian Institution I walked into, especially both Air and Space locations and American History).  She gave me feed back on Little Star and his book page as well.  She also gave me some great advice and resources as well!


Little Star also started reaching out without realizing it.  I was taking his picture outside of Air and Space and I heard some voices.  Finally I heard one ask what I was doing.  I wound up talking to a couple of lovely women for several minutes about the accessibility program in the McDonnell Planetarium at SLSC and they were very encouraging!  All in all, Little Star and I had a big, but very special and rewarding trip to our nation's capitol!



On an airplane seat that has a large stripe of brown down an otherwise navy blue vinyl seat sits the yellow Little Star.  He has a round nose, plump cheeks, big brown eyes, a smile and rays pointing out from around him.  He is seatbelted in by the navy blue and silver belt. In front of him is an open safety instruction card on what to do in case of an emergency on the plane.
Little Star's first airplane trip


Little Star (a yellow star) is smiling as he sits on a black post in front of the very tall and pointed Washington Monument.  It has 50 US Flags around it and it is a sunny day with a blue sky in winter (as all the trees are bare of leaves).
Little Star with the Washington Monument

Little Star (a smiling yellow star) sits in front of a vitrine holding Kermit the Frog.  Kermit is green and looks much like a real frog except he has more human like hands/fingers.  He sits with his legs crossed and his mouth is red and pink and his eyes are half ping pong balls with black cloud like pupils.  There is a small text panel talking about Kermit on his exhibit mount base.
From one character who promotes learning to another - Little Star meets Kermit the Frog

In a very large and well lit airplane hanger (the Smithsonian Institute's National Air and Space Museum Udvar-Hazy Center) sits a replica of the Wright Brothers' Flyer.  The plane is made of wood and features what looks like scaffolding, propellers and a small engine.  Little Star is sitting in the pilot's seat, difficult to see.
Little Star was so popular with the docents they let him sit in the Wright Flyer replica!

A blonde young woman of about 5'4" wearing a long sleeved purple shirt and black pants stands sideways with her head turned to smile at the camera.  She has arms extended up bronze statue of Helen Keller as young girl water pump that helped Annie Sullivan teach her ASL.  In the blonde's hands is small plush yellow star face used tactile tool for shows planetarium.  The statue extends about three feet above the woman.  It sits white pedestal plaque which states representing state Alabama.  All text is also printed and in Braille.  The room in which the picture was taken has stone walls and was bright due skylights overhead that are not visible in the picture.
The Blog Author holds Little Star to the hand of the accessible Helen Keller statue for the State of Alabama at the U.S. Capitol Building

In a brightly lit space with maroon carpet sits the gumdrop shaped Apollo 11 Capsule, tan in color and looking old but majestic on its mount of black and gold.  Little Star (a smiling yellow star) sits on top of the mount and overhead "The Spirit of Saint Louis" can be seen.  The airplane is silver with small black tires, a propeller and the name of the aircraft on the side of the body near the nose.
Little Star at the Smithsonian Institute's Air and Space Museum National Mall Building

On a green exhibit text panel for the Big Bang sits a bronze tactile example of what it is thought the Big Bang looked like, showing from right to left how everything started densely and then expanded out creating a cloud of gas and dust which is designated by divots in the bronze.  In one of the divots at the end sits Little Star (a yellow star who is smiling)
Little Star is born in a cloud of gas and dust... at the end of the tactile big bang

In a planetarium with a big 70' diameter dome sits many blue seats that face the center.  In the center is a Zeiss Universarium Mark VI projector which looks like a dumbbell. On one of the closest chairs sits Little Star (a smiling yellow star) looking up.
Little Star sits in his first Planetarium seat at the Einstein Planetarium at the Smithsonian Institute's National Air and Space Museum National Mall Building (there are no real seats in the McDonnell Planetarium in Saint Louis - we have mats to lie on the ground for our shows)

Saturday, January 12, 2013

The Model Begins!

I cannot tell you how excited I am that work has begun on the cut-away tactile model of the Planetarium's StarBay and Zeiss Universarium IX Projector!

We've done some work to figure out the layout on the casework, and while I knew it was going to be 24" in diameter, it was completely different experiencing how big that is, for lack of a better phrase, "in real life."  Below are some pictures of the process of mocking it up to get an idea.


On a wooden table sits three more pieces of wood and on top of those sits a circle of wood that is 24" in diameter.  There is a stick of wood the same length as the diameter of the circle of wood with a screw holding it loosely to the circle.  Seen in the picture are the hands of a young man using a drill on the side of the stick.  He is dressed in a dark blue sweatshirt.  Also on the table is a yellow tape measure.  In the background sits a belt-sander and several other work benches and two-by-fours.  The room is very brightly lit and has plain white walls.
Figuring out the base and dome size

A young man can be seen cutting a square piece of wood on a band saw which as a white case and, like the head of the young man goes out of the frame of the picture.  The young man is wearing jeans, a sweatshirt and brown work boots.  There are many drawers behind him that are blue and hold small pieces of hardware such as screws.  The room is well lit and has a grey floor.  There are scraps off wood around the band saw.
Cutting out the shape of the dome with the band saw

The young man dressed in a dark blue hooded sweatshirt and dark blue jeans holds the half circle of wood that represents the done over a cut away curved piece of wood that is propped up on silver square metal weights to represent the walls and dome of the StarBay.  It sits over the 24" diameter circle of wood that is the floor of the StarBay.  This all sits on top of a large wooden table with piece of wood around it.  Behind this table is a green table that holds the table saw and it has a white guide running perpendicular to the wood table on it as well.
Giving an idea of the size of the model


It is going to be so amazing when it is done!  I was also excited to receive some pictures today.  I am now out of town but work on the model has continued.   I'm very excited to see the Zeiss model's positive in person when I get back (and special thanks to Ian for all your hard work)!

Sitting on a grey cart is a black pencil and several sheets of graph paper.  On the graph paper sits discarded yellow pieces of foam and the beginning of the positive to create the mold for the Zeiss Model.  The view is from the top and there is a sloped rectangle with a couple triangles at slight angles jutting out from the tallest end with the small point of the triangles by the rectangle.  On top of the end of the rectangle and the two triangles is a circle of foam.   On the sloping rectangle are eight rectangles sticking up perpendicular to the sloped rectangle.  These are the eight planet, sun and moon projectors.
Zeiss model starts to appear as a positive in foam! Here is the base and planet projectors

Sitting on a grey cart are several sheets of graph paper.  On the graph paper sits discarded yellow pieces of foam and the beginning of the positive to create the mold for the Zeiss Model.  The view is from the right side and there is a sloped wedge, or rectangle with a couple triangles at slight angles jutting out from the tallest end with the small point of the triangles by the rectangle.  On top of the end of the rectangle and the two triangles is a circle of foam.   On the sloping rectangle are eight rectangles sticking up perpendicular to the sloped rectangle.  These are the eight planet, sun and moon projectors.  In the fore ground is a ball of the foam about the size of a golf ball
Side view of the Zeiss model's base and planet projectors