by Alex Lawson, Young Adult Librarian
At the beginning of November John Maple, an educator from Baltimore’s Space Telescope Science Institute, came to the Roland Park Branch to host a Star Party. Mr. Maple talked to an audience of children, teenagers, and adults about STScI’s work with the Hubble Telescope. He used LEDs and special glasses to show everybody how scientists use light and color to explore the universe.
Then, after eating dinner, we all went up to the library’s terrace to look at the sky with a telescope. It was a cloudy night, but everybody was excited to see the top of Roland Park Elementary/Middle School’s bell tower through the telescope.This program was one of many programs at Enoch Pratt ran as part of the One Book Baltimore initiative. Programs related to restoring peace, anti-violence and the One Book initiative is scheduled at various Pratt locations across the city. The grand finale will be a conversation with author Nic Stone, December 12, 2018, 6 p.m. at the Northwood Branch.
Then, after learning to operate Wide Angle Youth Media’s sophisticated cameras, the teens went outside to take their own photographs. They walked around the neighborhood for over an hour, snapping pictures and applying what they’d learned, before returning to the library.
There, over pizza, the entire group critiqued and complimented everybody’s photographs. Many of the pictures were beautiful, and it was easy to see that their quality improved over the course of the hour that the teens spent practicing their technique.
