The Planetarium Science Centre (PSC) is a department in the

Bibliotheca Alexandrina The Bibliotheca Alexandrina (Latin, 'Library of Alexandria'; , ) (BA) is a major library and cultural center on the shore of the Mediterranean Sea in Alexandria, Egypt. It is a commemoration of the Library of Alexandria, once one of the larg ...

located in

Alexandria Alexandria ( ; ) is the List of cities and towns in Egypt#Largest cities, second largest city in Egypt and the List of coastal settlements of the Mediterranean Sea, largest city on the Mediterranean coast. It lies at the western edge of the Nile ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. It promotes science centers as an educational tool.

Structure

Pre-Historic Animal Park

The Science Park has a Dinosaur Park that houses models of many prehistoric animals.

ALEXPloratorium

The ALEXPloratorium is located next to the Planetarium, where visitors can interact with multiple exhibits that cover various scientific topics, most commonly physics and astronomy.

Programs and events

The PSC's Remote Sensing Workshop program introduces the scientific principles of

remote sensing Remote sensing is the acquisition of information about an physical object, object or phenomenon without making physical contact with the object, in contrast to in situ or on-site observation. The term is applied especially to acquiring inform ...

and offers hands-on applications. The RoboAlex Center at the Alexploratorium offers instruction in robotics. The participating groups design, program, and test

robots" \n\n\n\n\n\n\nrobots.txt is the filename used for implementing the Robots Exclusion Protocol, a standard used by websites to indicate to visiting web crawlers and other web robots which portions of the website they are allowed to visit.\n\nThe sta ...

on a playing field to accomplish certain missions. The result of an alliance between

FIRST First most commonly refers to: * First, the ordinal form of the number 1 First or 1st may also refer to: Acronyms * Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-Centimeters, an astronomical survey carried out by the Very Large Array * Far Infrared a ...

and

LEGO Lego (, ; ; stylised as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys manufactured by the Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. Lego consists of variously coloured interlocking plastic bricks made of acrylonitri ...

is the

FIRST Lego League Challenge The ''FIRST'' Lego League Challenge (formerly known as ''FIRST'' Lego League) is an international competition organized by '' FIRST'' for elementary and middle school students (ages 9–14 in the United States and Canada, 9-15 elsewhere). Each y ...

(FLL). The FLL is an international hands-on, sport-like robotics program that was intended for children aged 9–14.

Eratosthenes

Eratosthenes is an annual festival that the Bibliotheca Alexandrina organizes to promote science and heritage among school students. The Festivities of 2003–2008 evolved around measuring the

Earth's circumference Earth's circumference is the distance around Earth. Measured around the equator, it is . Measured passing through the poles, the circumference is . Treating the Earth as a sphere, its circumference would be its single most important measuremen ...

, inspired by the Greek mathematician and poet

Eratosthenes Eratosthenes of Cyrene (; ; – ) was an Ancient Greek polymath: a Greek mathematics, mathematician, geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theory, music theorist. He was a man of learning, becoming the chief librarian at the Library of A ...

Intel BASEF

The PSC, in collaboration with

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

, organizes the Intel Bibliotheca Alexandrina Science and Engineering Fair (Intel BASEF), which is hosted by the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in March. Intel BASEF is intended for children in grades 9–12 from Alexandria and the neighboring governorates to compete with each team. The winning projects, one team project and two individual projects, represent

in the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (Intel ISEF) that takes place in the United States.

Renovation

In 2009, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina reopened its

planetarium A planetarium (: planetariums or planetaria) is a theatre built primarily for presenting educational and entertaining shows about astronomy and the night sky, or for training in celestial navigation. A dominant feature of most planetariums is ...

after a renovation. The renovation included a new dome projection system and a new set of shows. The renovation allowed for the Bibliotheca and the Planetarium Science Center to jointly host the 20th

International Planetarium Society The International Planetarium Society, Inc. (IPS) is the global association of planetarium professionals. Its more than 600 members come from 42 countries around the world. They represent schools, colleges and universities, museums, and public ...

conference in June 2010. "Stars of the Pharaohs" is one of the shows that was displayed at the PSC; it was based on ancient Egyptian astronomy. It discusses topics such as how the

Ancient Egyptians Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower ...

built observatories to study astronomy and what their legacy is to

modern science The history of science covers the development of science from ancient times to the present. It encompasses all three major branches of science: natural, social, and formal. Protoscience, early sciences, and natural philosophies such as al ...

. "New Horizons" is a show focusing on modern astronomical discoveries. The Digistar 3 was first introduced in 2002 by the

Evans & Sutherland Evans & Sutherland is an American computer graphics firm founded in 1968 by David C. Evans (computer scientist), David Evans and Ivan Sutherland. Its current products are used in digital projection environments like planetariums. Its simulation b ...

(E&S) Company, which specializes in digital systems for planetariums. The Digistar 3 uses two projectors to display the full hemisphere of the planetarium.

References

External links

*
Planetarium Science Center official websiteIntel Bibliotheca Alexandria Science and Engineering Fair official website
{{Coord, 31.208984, 29.908143, region:EG-ALX_type:landmark, display=title Buildings and structures in Alexandria Science and technology in Egypt Scientific organisations based in Egypt Bibliotheca Alexandrina Planetaria