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Student Visitors
Mr. Dan Sabo's 3rd grade class from Hualalai Academy on their visit to the Galaxy Garden.  At our Black Hole Fountain, the students enjoyed learning about the jets that can emanate from the centers of spiral galaxies like our own.
These thank you notes from Mr. Sabo's 3rd grade class are delightful. I especially like the boy standing in the garden saying "Its amaze" and the nice line drawing of the fountain/galactic center and jets. Kids grasp the idea of the galaxy very well, maybe because they have fewer preconceptions about the place of our planet in the larger scheme of things.  
Student News Story The following story was written for the Wildcat Newspaper of Konawaena High School in Kona, Hawaii, during construction of the Galaxy Garden last school year. The author is student Ashley Raleigh. Planet Plant-It "This is the first of its kind." Have you ever thought it possible to be able to take a short walk through our entire galaxy? Passing by the solar system and getting close enough to a black hole to touch it, but still not get sucked in and morphed into a Stretch Armstrong? The time has come, for us to get to know our surroundings from a different point of view- a view in space. A view from the top! The Galaxy Gardens were once a mere pipe dream of astronomer and head designer Jon Lomberg. After 5 or 6 years of perfecting the details and working to make the idea into a reality, Jon got a little help in the form of a land donation from Paleaku Gardens. "They were so helpful in donating the land. They're a non-profit organization, so it was from the heart. The most difficult part of this process was finding a flat peice of land here that was the right size." Mr. Lomberg also wanted to thank the Change Happens Foundation, and the New Moon Foundation for their generous donations. Now, all that is needed is the volunteered time of good people to make sure the gardens are completed. Jon predicts it should be by summertime. Miss Stavrovsky's Earth Science students and members of the Astronomy Club have offered up their time every Wednesday, and have recently begun cleaning up the areas surrounding the garden. By transporting and watering the plants, digging trenches, getting dirt under their fingernails, and snapping photos along the way, they are living history right now. Anyone who is interested in helping can ask Miss Stavrovsky for details. The gardens themselves have been planned out so precisely that the distance between each flower and plant has been calculated to be an exact scale model of the distances between planets and stars. The colors of each flower petal and every spot on each leaf represent a color or presence of every planet, star or any other type of matter in the atmosphere. The plants have been set up in a swirling circular pattern on the land, as to show that our galaxy is in a constant spiraling motion. Earth, for now, is represented by an orange cone, but it will soon be replaced by a fitting type of plant. Jon has decided it would be best to start out with Earth in the order of planets, so one would be able to compare the rest of the galaxy accordingly. The black hole of our galaxy has temporarily been represented by a large piece of lava rock. "Its black, and has holes", Jon explained with a chuckle. Future plans for making it more realistic include a fountain to show the X-rays emitted by a black hole, and a mirror underneath to project the three-dimensional look. Never before has a scale model been built of our galaxy like this one. Jon states he believes this is because there is not yet enough known about our galaxy, so we settle for our well-known solar system instead. Working together with astronomers and scientists, and doing research of his own, Jon has been able to gain enough knowledge to lead the pack and build this model with expert precision and detail. Much is expected from this journey and the outcome will be a momentous occasion in history. A website for this project is in the making so millions more will be able to access information about the gardens, view photos of volunteers working on the land, and contact those involved. Happy planting! - Ashley Raleigh / Wildcat Newspaper of Konawaena High School Student Participants Students from Konawaena High School supplied much of the volunteer labor. They dug out rocks, hauled dirt and spread cinder, and put many of the plants into the ground. During each session we would talk about the garden they were helping to build. The comments below show how much they gained from the experience: "I didn't realize how small Earth is compared to the galaxy..." - Brian "Wow, that Earth is small. I thought it would be bigger." - Ramon "That's a big a garden, Miss..." - Colt "After working for the galaxy gardens, I started thinking that there HAS to be other life in the galaxy because of all the other stars out there. I mean, there's only one planet we know of that has life, but there are billions of other stars out there... there has to be other life out there. How can there not be life out there with all those other stars?" - Colt "But aren't there other colors of stars in the galaxy besides yellow? Where are the red and blue and orange stars?" - Frank "Miss, that was a lot of hard work doing that garden! I was sweating! But I had a lot of fun! When are we going again?" - Aisha "I liked how this garden helped me to understand our constellations better. I never knew why the Milky Way looked different throughout the year, now I understand why. I feel like it is hard for me to explain it in words, but in my head I feel like I understand it. I can picture us on the Earth looking towards the center of the galaxy in the summer and in the winter I picture us looking away from the center of the Milky Way. I hope that makes sense! This garden might have raised more questions than answered some... maybe that is good! I like thinking about these kinds of things." - Caylee "This is a really cool project. I hope we get to work on it more. I love to learn this way. We should create a website so people can learn about this..." - Katie "I didn't know there was a black hole at the center of the Milky Way. I didn't even realize that the Milky Way was our own galaxy. I thought it was just a candy bar and a cloud of stars in our sky. This garden helped me to understand our position in the galaxy, I think that was the point of the garden. I always thought the Earth was in the center of the galaxy, but we are actually farther out than that. I really liked getting out of school to work on the garden too. Sometimes you can learn by doing and building something like the galaxy garden instead of sitting and listening to teachers. It is really pretty in the garden too. I think once it grows it will look really nice. I'm glad I was able to work on it." - Alvin "It was cool." - Kekoa (A man of many words :) ) "So, Miss, if I took one step in the garden, it is 1000 light years? Whoa, that's cool! We should invent a machine that can travel like that." - Michael "I had a lot of fun working at the garden. I can't believe how big the Milky Way is compared to the Sun and the Earth! Working for the gardens made me think about how much time it took for the universe to be created. We learned it took 15 billion years, but is that true? This garden made me think of whoever came up with this galaxy and universe was a pretty neat person, or thing, or whatever..." - Kamal "What did I learn at the galaxy gardens? What DIDN'T I learn is more like it! I was surprised to learn that what we see in the sky at night is only in a small part of the galaxy surrounding the solar system. I thought that scientists knew so much about all the stars and galaxies around the solar system and sun, but I found out working for the garden that there is a lot we don't know. I started thinking about where other galaxies would be compared to our Milky Way... how far away would they be? How far away would the closest galaxy be? How far away would the farthest galaxy be? Are there more people out there? Where are they? What are they? Are there really that many stars? Is there stuff out there we can't see? Can you hear sound in space? When it was quiet in the garden it made me think a lot about sound... Like supernovas... when they blow up, can you hear them?" - Courtney |
