On October 19-22, 2016, the 52nd Annual GLPA Conference was hosted by the Longway Planetarium in Flint, Michigan.
Click one of the links below to view video recordings from selected sessions during the conference.
You can also view the 2016 conference videos on YouTube.
This video is also available for viewing on YouTube.
This video is also available for viewing on YouTube.
This video is also available for viewing on YouTube.
This video is also available for viewing on YouTube.
This video is also available for viewing on YouTube.
This video is also available for viewing on YouTube.
This video is also available for viewing on YouTube.
This video is also available for viewing on YouTube.
Presenting the annual astronomy update again this year will be Dr. Ronald Kaitchuck, Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana.
A longtime member of GLPA, Dr. Kaitchuck earned his Ph.D. in astronomy from Indiana University. He is author or co-author of more than 80 scientific publications, two books, and has contributed to Scientific American and the Encyclopedia Britannica.
As the long-time director of the Ball State University Planetarium, Dr. Kaitchuck planned, designed, and helped secure donations for the new Charles W. Brown Planetarium with a 16 meter dome and a GOTO/RSA Cosmos hybrid star projector. The new facility opened in 2014.
Kaitchuck was the Director of the Southeastern Association for Research in Astronomy Consortium’s observatory in Chile for 4 years. His current research interests are observational astronomy and interacting binary stars
This video is also available for viewing on YouTube.
This video is also available for viewing on YouTube.
This video is also available for viewing on YouTube.
This video is also available for viewing on YouTube.
Dr. Richard Bellon is an assistant professor at Michigan State University. He is a historian of nineteenth-century science which means that, for much of the last several years, he has devoted much of his time to men with muttonchops who obsessed over the sex lives of plants.
His 2011 essay, "Inspiration in the Harness of Daily Labor: Darwin, Botany and the Triumph of Evolution, 1859-1868," won the 2013 Derek Price/Rob Webster Prize from the History of Science Society.
Dr. Bellon’s 2014 book A Sincere and Teachable Heart: Self-Denying Virtue in British Intellectual Life, 1736-1859 moves beyond the history of Victorian science to argue that respectability and authority in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain were not grounded foremost in ideas or specialist skills but in the self-denying virtues of patience and humility.
His currently research focuses on the history of Victorian natural history, particularly the reception of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection in the 1860s.
Bellon teaches in both History and the Lyman Briggs College. His classes cover a wide range of topics, including freshmen introductions to the history, philosophy and sociology of science; history seminars on Victorian Britain; graduate courses on the history of biology; surveys of the history of molecular biology and biotechnology; and seminars on contemporary science policy.
This video is also available for viewing on YouTube.
Gary Sampson is the Director Emeritus of the Gary E. Sampson Planetarium at Wauwatosa West High School in the Milwaukee, Wisconsin area. In addition to operating the planetarium at West High School, Gary taught high school astronomy and Earth science for 38 years. His astronomy students were extensively involved with the development and field testing of the Project STAR and Investigating Astronomy initiatives which resulted in the publication of the first-ever high school astronomy textbooks.
Under the auspices of Projects STAR and SPICA, Sampson has presented astronomy workshops to more than 400 elementary, middle school and high school teachers. He was a Teacher-Leader for astronomy exchanges with high school students in China in 1988 and in Australia in 1991. In 1993 the Astronomical Society of the Pacific honored Gary as the initial recipient of the Brennan Award for excellence in teaching high school astronomy.
Sampson is a former president of GLPA and was GLPA’s Instructional Materials chair for 13 years. He has done numerous workshops and presentations at GLPA conferences and was co-chair of the GLPA conferences in the Milwaukee area in 1984 and 2008. He is a former chair of the International Planetarium Society Education Committee and was the IPS Script Bank Coordinator from 1990-2003.
Gary is an avid gardener and enjoys bicycling. He is a member of Team GLPA, a group of GLPA planetarians who participate in bicycle rides, including the annual United Performing Arts Fund Ride for the Arts in Milwaukee.
This video is also available for viewing on YouTube.
This video is also available for viewing on YouTube.
This video is also available for viewing on YouTube.
This video is also available for viewing on YouTube.
This video is also available for viewing on YouTube.