Star Teachers: Bethpage 's CBS Teachers build Star Structure for Students

Bethpage School District 's Central Boulevard Elementary School 1 st grade teacher Ms. Jamie Bellini and Classroom Teaching Assistant Mr. James Asselta designed and built a portable star structure which allowed students to experience the night sky during the day.

The teachers first worked together to develop a structure that would meet their specific needs. Inspired by a clear reading bubble design he had seen during his student teaching, Mr. Asselta began building the Star Structure. Made of dark colored plastic ground covers duck-taped together, the structure is inflated with a small air compressor. There are holes poked in the top and constellations drawn on the inside with neon highlighter. The teachers use a black light to help illuminate the constellations in the darken structure, making them visible to students.

This portable planetarium helped teachers to introduce students, five at a time, to the concepts of stars and space. The homemade structure was set up in the classroom one week prior to a scheduled field trip to the Vanderbilt Planetarium. It was designed to better prepare students for the experiences and information they would be presented with during their class field trip. With the aid of the structure, the first graders were able to feel more confident and get the most out of their visit to the planetarium.