The day arrived! Lighthouse for the Blind Saint Louis helped me reach out to their community and eight families responded that they wanted to come experience the first run of the program! The children ranged from 11 months to age 9 and had varying levels of visual abilities. All of them were VERY excited (and so were the family members and friends who came)!
I was also excited to host John, Angie and Stephen from Lighthouse for the Blind Saint Louis for this first show, as well as our amazing volunteer Deb and the creator of The Little Star That Could, Laura Kyro.
Laura and I with Little Star in the Orthwein StarBay of the McDonnell Planetarium at the Saint Louis Science Center |
We did a full run through of the program. Starting in the lobby with the model of the Planetarium, I talked a little bit with the kids about where they would be going and what they would see. We all then went up to the StarBay in the elevator and sat down to talk about the characters. All the kids "met" the main five characters, learned a little about their colors and temperatures and got to handle the plush characters.
Finally books and iPads were introduced to the kids and they were told how to follow along with them during the show and we began.
Of course, there were unforseen issues as with any first run, but now that we know about them (i.e. the program on the iPads was too easy to exit out of and the kids kept losing their personal view of the show). I now know that this is an issue that can be rectified in the future.
Once the show was over, the kids got to meet Laura and she spoke to them briefly. The kids and their families then offered me their opinions on the program, and they told me what they liked and what they would like to see change. I received some wonderful feedback from everyone and I now know what I need to do next. We're just getting warmed up here at the James S. McDonnell Planetarium, and it can only get better from here!
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