Sumter students are aiming for the stars and a Weirsdale resident is quite serious about inspiring them to rise even higher.
Phil Rosenberg is donating telescopes for students to use through his “One Hundred Telescopes Project.” He donated two more telescopes this past week to Bushnell Elementary School and Webster Elementary School, bringing the number of donations to the school district to five. Each telescope is given a name, and the recently donated telescopes are in honor of Michele Uss and Pastor Drew Willard.
“The idea is to create an environment where every child gets to say ‘Wow,’” Rosenberg told Colleen Strickland, coordinator of 6-12 curriculum.
During the school presentations, Rosenberg demonstrated how to use the Celestron Nexstar 4SE Maksutov telescopes and showed the students the
photos he took with his telescope from his own observatory, which he invited teachers and their students to visit.
Superintendent Richard A. Shirley said the school district is thankful for the Rosenberg family’s donation and School Board member Sally Moss for helping coordinate the gift.
“The students will probably be forever interested in astronomy because of this donation,” he said.
To show appreciation, the students of from Bushnell Elementary and Webster Elementary wrote 100 thank-you cards and posted them to the wall
to share the excitement. Students also shared original pieces of poetry with an astronomy theme during the presentation. Every student received a book to add to their personal library provided by Title IV funds and Suncoast for Kids.
School Board Member Sally Moss, of The Villages, gave each child a laminated solar system bookmark to go with their book.
“These telescopes will help the students discover a whole new world that right now they only see as sparkling diamonds in the night sky,” Moss said. “Tomorrow, they could be using these stars to navigate through space.”
As the students and teachers learned what they can do with the new instruments, such as look at the sun with a special solar filter or look at the moon during daylight, Rosenberg encouraged them to utilize thetelescopes to inspire others. The telescopes are the first to be donated to the two schools and the science teachers will use them to teach lessons with their students.
Two books authored by Rosenberg also were donated to the school media centers.
“The main idea is to inspire kids to learn something we’re forgetting in our culture, which is how to dream and use your imagination,” Rosenberg said.