(DRAFT, under re-development; last updated 9/06/2011, cjw)
(CAUTION: tentative information; not all citations are in place)
The origin of the ISU Physics Department is that of its physics teacher education program which is somewhat shrouded in mystery. The history of both is, however, inextricably tied to the origin of the present-day Illinois State University. Illinois State University was founded as a teacher education institution. Nowhere can this connection be better seen than in the original name of the institution, Illinois State Normal University (ISNU). A "normal school" was the characterization of a university that prepared teachers. The name of the school also gave its name to the town that later sprang up surrounding its location - Normal, IL.
Following the lead of a national Teachers College movement (Harper, 1935), Illinois Governor William Bissell signed legislation on February 18, 1857, to create ISNU, and to establish the Board of Education of the State of Illinois as its governing body. The legislation stipulated that the permanent location for the new normal school would be the place that offered the most favorable inducements. Jesse W. Fell took up the campaign for Bloomington and obtained financial backing totaling $141,000. Abraham Lincoln, acting as attorney for the Board, drew up the bond guaranteeing that Bloomington citizens would fulfill their financial commitments. Consequently, Illinois State Normal University was founded as the first public institution of higher education in Illinois. ISNU was the first normal school established in the Mississippi Valley and for a generation was the most important institution of higher learning in Illinois.
Early teacher education courses at the University focused on such topics as natural science, mathematics, writing and penmanship, and creative and household arts. A three-year program leading to graduation was usually filled with "applied" arts and sciences suitable to the needs of the growing agricultural and business communities within the State. Within the first few years of the institution's origin, a science department naturally evolved as a desire to make advances in science available to students in common schools. Joseph Addison Sewell, a prominent science educator, was named the chair of natural science. "Sewell was a practicing physician with a scientific viewpoint and a missionary zeal for extending practical scientific knowledge to the masses... Professor Sewell was indeed a pioneer in the modern methods of science instruction. He believed in inducing students from the very beginning of their work to study nature directly." (Harper, 1935).
Geology, biology, agriculture, and astronomy were among the first science courses regularly offered, though for the first 50 years of the institution a strong emphasis was placed on the first two at the expense of the latter. Geology and biology focused on the study of museum collections including rocks, minerals, and preserved zoological specimens. Astronomy often consisted of nothing more than a review of the constellations, motions of the planets and stars, and speculations about the nature of the Milky Way. The study of astronomy was supplemented by observations through a 4-inch Alvan Clark refracting telescope obtained and put to use by the University's second President, Richard Edwards (president 1862-1876).
John Cook was a member of one of the University's first classes. He entered ISNU in the fall of 1862 and graduated in 1865. Cook was a student of Richard Edwards and Edwin Hewett, and did his student teaching under Thomas Metcalf. After teaching for a year in Brimfield, he responded to President Edwards’ request for him to be the Principal of Grammar department of the Model School. While Professor Hewitt was on leave, Cook took over his work in geography and history. In 1869 he was made professor of reading and elocution, and in 1876 he took over the teaching of mathematics. For the next fourteen years he taught mostly mathematics and physics. He would culminate his ISNU career by serving as the fourth university president from 1890 to 1899, succeeding Edwin C. Hewitt, another of the teacher educators on faculty who also rose to university president. (Founders Day Video #7).
To meet the needs of a growing university student body, Moulton Hall was opened in 1920. It was named after Samuel Moulton, a University founder and congressman who mortgaged his property to keep the University going through the Civil War. Moulton was also a member of the original Board of Education that provided oversight of ISNU. Moulton Hall first became the Thomas Metcalf Laboratory School for teachers and classes (K-12). Adlai Stevenson - who became vice president of the United States under the Grove Cleveland administration (1893-1897) - was one of the school's most famous pupils.
By the 1920s, the study of physics became more specialized. Still, the emphasis in education was on the practical arts that could be applied in rural settings. For instance, the winter terms at this time were given over chiefly to the study of general science: physics, elementary meteorology, heat, ventilation, water supply and sanitation (Harper, 1935). As an indication of the growing importance of natural science to the education of school children and their teachers, the David Felmley Hall of Science was erected on campus starting in 1929. Felmley Hall of Science was named after David Felmley, President of Illinois State Normal University from 1900-1930. Felmley was an advocate for the needs of students and faculty for three decades and worked to expand areas of curriculum. Felmley Hall opened in 1930.
Teacher candidates during the early years of the University studied content courses and practiced at the University's Model School which was then housed in Moulton Hall. The University developed its Model School after a committee headed by Charles Hovey visited several other institutions with lab schools. The committee reported that one of the tasks of the normal school was to:
"Give students practical skill by actual service under instruction in the school of practice, or model school. They should here be taught that there can be no real success in practice without a rational theory to which such practice can, at every step, be referred. They should be made to see and feel that there must be a reason for every process in education as well as in medicine, or engineering, or mechanics."
Over the years, the graduations of candidates who would teach "engineering or mechanics" were isolated incidents. After they graduated, the mostly taught in one-room school houses scattered across Illinois. The teaching of science during the early times consisted of little more than mechanics and astronomy, both of which were practical elements of farming. Physics as a topic of study wasn't introduced into the nation's schools until after the 1892 Committee of Ten made a recommendation to do so. The Committee provided its recommendations in a report calling for twelve years of education, with eight years of elementary education followed by four years of high school education. All students would be taught similarly, regardless of their further education plans or careers. The recommendations were influential and were soon adopted by many school systems across the United States. The recommendations were generally interpreted as a call to teach English, mathematics, and history or civics to every student every academic year in high school. The recommendations also formed the basis of the practice of teaching biology, chemistry, and physics, respectively, in ascending high school academic years.
The earliest records of science teaching graduates currently available come from the late 1930s and early 1940s when discipline-based teachers began to graduate at a rate of one every few years. This pace of graduation continued over the years with the Department of Natural Sciences managing all science teaching programs.
~ 1960 Dr. Bernie Ryder, chair of the Natural Sciences Department, requests funding for an expansion of Felmley Hall of Science. In 1962, the University received a grant from the National Science Foundation to assist with a $1.8 million annex to the David Felmley Hall of Science. As the project was nearing completion, the project was clearly under budget. Not wanting to waste appropriated money, a planetarium was added only as an afterthought when the NSF program funding the expansion project first requested and then reviewed a wish list from the Science Department. The wish list was prepared by Drs. Bernie Ryder (chair of the Science Department) and Harold Born. At the very bottom of this 30-item wish list was a planetarium. The NSF program officers reviewed this aspect of the wish list favorably, and a planetarium was added with little concern for mission, staffing, parking, and rest room facilities. The annex, including the planetarium, was officially opened on September 1, 1964. It was later agreed that the planetarium should serve the purpose of being used in the Science Department’s astronomy course, for holding adult education courses, for instructing school and social groups, and for admitting the general public from time to time.
The Physics Department was created as an entity separate from the Science Department in 1966 when Illinois State Normal University evolved from a teacher-preparation institution to a multi-purpose university with degree programs at the bachelor's, master's, and doctoral levels. At the time of its formation, the Physics Department faculty consisted of Harold Born (chair), Philip Edwards, and Glen Greenseth. During its early years, the Department concentrated its efforts on the physics component of the University's general education program and building a curriculum to serve a growing number of physics and physics teaching majors. During this time the Physics Department continued to be housed in the Felmley Hall of Science until 1976 when the program outgrew is facility. In 1976 the Department was moved to the third floor of the newly renovated Moulton Hall.
By this time the faculty and class sizes mirror the explosive growth of the University. By 1976 the faculty had expanded to include Kenneth Jesse, Marvin Luther, Charles Frahm, John Crew,
During the period when enrollments in upper division physics courses were low, the Department developed a self-paced, modular approach to advanced physics courses. This Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) proved to be quite popular and successful, and was adopted by other universities across the nation.
Elimination of the Masters Degree Program
Statewide fiscal problems in 1968 led to systematic cuts of the University's budget in the late 1960s despite the recent growth of the University. Master's programs in physical science, social science, physics, and Latin would soon be terminated reluctantly. President Berlo eliminated master's program in Physics on September 15, 1971.
The Physics Teacher Education Sequence
At about this time, physics faculty member Philip Edwards, M.S., took charge of the now formal physics teacher education program. He had had several years of high school physics teaching experience, and had spent some of his time more recently teaching physics in a local parochial high school. Edwards had earned his masters degree in physics from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee.
At that time, the Physics Department offered a course, PHYSICS 301 - Teaching High School Physics - but, as a low-enrollment course it was taught informally using a PSI format. Students would conduct independent readings using a variety of provided resources. These resources generally consisted of a number of short guidebooks from the National Science Teachers Association - Safety in the Classroom, Legal Concerns of Teachers, and so forth. Mr. Edwards then discussed these readings with teacher candidates in periodic office meetings. Eleven major topics were discussed, and ultimately student knowledge was assessed through a series of examinations. Students also completed clinical experiences in area high schools and middle schools. In 1993, an formal second Physics Teacher Education (PTE) course was initiated - PHYSICS 302 - Computer Applications in High School Physics - due to a growing use of technology in high school classrooms. This course was primarily an independent study. Students enrolled in the course built a photogate using infrared emitters, photodiodes, and PVC pipe for use with an Apple IIe or IIgs computer.
Prior to Mr. Edward's involvement in the PTE sequence, there were very few teacher candidates graduated from the Physics Department. There were two such graduates in 1973 and 1977 with no record of any additional graduates from 1978 through 1986. After his involvement, there were 10 graduates between 1987 and 1994. During this latter period, student teachers were supervised by Dr. Thomas C. Fitch or Dr. Robert L. Fisher from the Department of Curriculum & Instruction. There were about 5 PTE majors scattered over several years of the PTE program when Mr. Edwards retired in 1994. During his tenure as informal director of the physics teacher education program, Edwards provided that basis for future development and growth of the program.
Carl J. Wenning, M.A.T., then planetarium director (see planetarium history* for details) and a certified high school physics and math teacher (Michigan credentials), took over the PTE program upon Mr. Edwards' retirement at the end of 1993-1994 school year. Wenning had earned a B.S. in Astronomy from Ohio State University, and an M.A.T. degree in Planetarium Education from Michigan State University in 1978, Wenning did so at the request of then Physics Department Chairman Dr. George Skadron. Wenning was appointed director of the PTE program effective July 1, 1994, along with his other duties as planetarium director. The only request that Wenning made of Skadron and the Department at that time is that his efforts at program reform would be supported.
Wenning had started working at ISU on August 21, 1978, as Planetarium Director --a civil service level employee. When Edwards retired, Wenning was a logical replacement for leading the small PTE program that didn't seem to require too much of the program director's time. In order to improve his ability to work within the physics teacher education program, Wenning returned to graduate school, enrolling in ISU's Department of Curriculum & Instruction in the autumn of 1994 with the intent of earning his Ed.D. He also took on a part-time teaching load as a faculty associate at University High School teaching one section of physics during the 1994-1995 year. During this time he worked closely with physics teacher Tom Holbrook to hone his high school science teaching skills. Convinced of the worth of inquiry-oriented instruction, Wenning utilized 47 labs over the course of the year - some lasting as long as nine days. This approach to physics teaching was featured in an article appearing in The Physics Teacher shortly after the conclusion of the school year (Wenning & Muehsler, 1996). He continued as planetarium director until November 2000 when he stepped down from the position to take over PTE program leadership on a full-time basis due to program development and growth. At about this time, Wenning was moved from Civil Service to the Administrative/Professional line of employment.
From 1994 until his retirement in 2008, the PTE program saw tremendous growth under Wenning's leadership. The program grew from about 5 students and two "simple" physics teaching methods courses, to more than 40 PTE majors, six required PTE physics teaching methods courses, and four regularly offered independent study courses. Physics 310 - Readings for Teaching High School Physics was introduced... Physics 301 was then completely revised and relabeled Physics 311 - Teaching High School Physics. Physics 209 - Introduction to Teaching High School Physics was introduced... Physics 312 - Teaching High School Physics from the Historical Perspective (later relabeled as Teaching High School Physics Through Inquiry) and Physics 353 - Student Teaching Seminar were later formally added when the Council for Teacher Education mandated full-time status for students enrolled in student teaching. As soon as Wenning took over the directorship of the PTE program, he also began supervising C&I 399.72 - Student Teaching in Physics. In addition, with the availability of the Internet, all courses were "developed from the start online". As a result, the program was entirely transparent with all syllabi, resources, assignments, and such visible to anyone with an interest in ISU's physics teaching program. This transparency continues today with the PTE Web site.
In June 2002, Wenning started the Journal of Physics Teacher Education Online (JPTEO) as a mechanism for getting word out about physics teacher preparation, including what was taking place at ISU. Within nine years of taking over as director of the Physics Teacher Education program, Wenning (2003) was able to identify and publish in JPTEO five change principles that were critical for the program's development and growth. Wenning noted that:
By the fall of 2005 the program had grown sufficiently large enough that it had begun to garner a national reputation. Wenning and Physics Department Chair Richard Martin (2005) were invited by AIP's Forum on Education to describe the University's growing program. They wrote,
"While the number of physics majors was down across the nation in the mid-to-late 1990's, the Illinois State physics program held its own, even growing somewhat, to the extent that we were mentioned as one of the more successful departments in Ehrlich's 1998 article "Where are the physics majors?" (Ehrlich, 1998). We were invited, as an example of a successful program, to present at the conference on Revitalizing the Undergraduate Physics Curriculum in 1997, sponsored by the APS and AAPT. A significant contributor to this success was growth in the PTE program. Under new leadership, the program mushroomed such that by the fall 2005 semester it enrolled 40 physics teaching majors. The revised PTE program, briefly described in an earlier Forum on Education article (Wenning, 2001), was predicated on a number of "big ideas" that have guided the program through its development. Some of these ideas are presented here.
The re-emergence of the PTE program at ISU began with the hiring of a part-time PTE coordinator in 1994. The coordinator, a certified secondary high school physics teacher, was originally assigned the responsibility of running the PTE program as an adjunct to other existing duties. Being fully aware of the lack of physics teaching majors and the growing demand, a long-term effort was begun to develop a program that would attract more teacher candidates.
Beginning in 1994 four additional physics teaching methods courses were added to the PTE major. By 2001 the part-time coordinator had become full time, and PTE majors were taking six required physics teaching methods courses spanning 2.5 years and consisting of 12 semester hours. All six methods courses were described earlier in a Forum on Education Newsletter (Wenning, 2001). Up-to-date syllabi for each of these courses can be accessed online at http://www.phy.ilstu.edu/pte/. This sequence of courses is logically related and strongly coordinated. All have in some way been influenced by the NSTA Standards for Science Teacher Preparation and the National Science Education Standards. Each has as its focus some aspect of inquiry-oriented physics teaching. The sequence provides a systematic and comprehensive treatment of secondary-level pedagogical practices and scientific inquiry processes (Wenning, 2005a).
Our seven-step sequence for teacher preparation includes the following foci (Wenning, 2005b): 1) introducing inquiry, 2) modeling inquiry, 3) promoting inquiry, 4) developing inquiry, 5) practicing inquiry, 6) deploying inquiry, and 7) supporting inquiry. Courses, including student teaching and first-year induction activities, continue as novice teachers advance to become more seasoned professionals. Much of the development of the PTE program was based on an assessment of teacher needs. A detailed teacher knowledge base was established following a literature review, after conversations with in-service teachers, and employing the coordinator's experiences with science teaching. This periodically reviewed and updated teacher knowledge base provides impetus for ongoing development within the PTE program. The knowledge base, consisting of 18 discrete elements, spans a range from content, pedagogical, and pedagogical content knowledge, through active learning, classroom management, and the nature of science.
Additional attention has been paid to candidate recruitment and retention. Special concern is shown for the physics teacher "pipeline" that conducts graduating high school students back to the high school classroom as teachers following university graduation. The Illinois Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers has been very active in this area (Wenning, 2004), and has made a number of recommendations to help improve the process that the ISU PTE program is attempting to more fully implement. The ISU program is now working cooperatively with a number of professional societies within Illinois in an effort to increase the number of teacher candidates in all areas of science and mathematics.
The ISU Physics Department directly recruits students not only for the PTE sequence, but all four sequences within the major - physics, computational physics, engineering physics, and physics teaching. Efforts include personal letters to high school science teachers, personal contacts with prospective students such as phone calls by female majors to female applicants, a departmental scholarship program, and a growing outreach program consisting of Saturday fun physics presentations and hands-on programs, an annual "Expanding Your Horizons through Math and Science" program for middle school girls, participation with the local children's science museum and Challenger Learning Center, and a student-centered traveling outreach show instigated by a "Physics on the Road" grant. However, underlying all these efforts is an underlying long-term effort to create better relationships with high school physics teachers.
Much of the recruitment for the Illinois State University PTE program is of this latter indirect variety. Goodwill generated through summer physics teacher workshops appears to be having a positive impact on enrollment. For instance, from 2001-2005 ISU was an AAPT/PTRA Rural Center offering summer professional development activities for teachers within about 100 miles of Normal, IL. During 2001, 2003, and 2005 grants were obtained to host two- and three-week-long Modeling Method of Physics workshops. Participating teachers, as well as ISU PTE program graduates, have been channeling PTE majors and other physics majors to ISU. Combined with our other recruitment activities, we have seen strong growth in the teacher education program. Today it is not uncommon to see a dozen or more PTE majors enrolled in a single physics teaching methods course as a result of these and similar efforts. It is expected that some 18 PTE majors will graduate over the course of the next two spring semesters.
A fortunate set of circumstances appears to have allowed these improvements in the Illinois State PTE program, including:
- The PTE coordinator who took over the program in 1994 was: (a) passionately committed to improving the teacher preparation process, (b) an certified secondary school teacher with knowledge of the teacher preparation process, (c) a dedicated teacher capable of modeling effective teaching for others, and (d) willing to learn the best practices and deal with the administrative details involved in the certification process.
- The coordinator was given the resources and release time necessary for properly educating teacher candidates, for incorporating external standards, and for participating in and providing professional development activities.
- Department chairpersons who, over more than ten years, recognized the importance of the PTE program and a physics faculty open to being educated in the ways and worth of physics teacher education and who frequently lent support to the coordinator's efforts.
These circumstances have been generalized into set of five change principles (Wenning 2003) applicable to building up similar programs at other institutions.
The success of our program is a synergistic effect of many contributors coordinated by a teacher education leader. There are no magic bullets here. We believe that the process can be replicated in any department ready to support such a project. The growth of our program has indeed aided our recruitment of physics majors in all degree sequences. It is not uncommon now to hear from new freshmen that they had one of our graduates as their high school physics teacher - and we would not be surprised if a recent increase in our incoming freshman ACT scores could be partially attributed to better physics education at the secondary level.
As a result of program improvement and both indirect and direct recruitment procedures, the number of majors in all sequences in physics at ISU currently exceeds 130. With 24 graduates this past year, the department remains one of the top ten producers of physics degrees from undergraduate-only departments, a distinction held since the late 1990's. Although we know of no national statistics, we suspect our average number of physics teacher graduates per year since 2000 would also rank us highly - perhaps an unfortunate comment on the current national shortage of physics teachers."
In addition, Wenning taught a half dozen Master's level courses and regularly conducted professional development workshops for in-service teachers of high school physics supported with more the $500,000 in grant funding during the first five years of the new millennium. The program was and remains entirely "transparent" with all courses and resources being available online. Wenning retired in 2008 after nearly 30 years at ISU - having retired only six months after earning his Ed.D. degree from ISU in December 2007. He noted that we was retiring, "not so I can do less, but so I can do more." Wenning continues to teach part time in the PTE program, and continues sharing his knowledge and experiences with other institutions in developing and expanding their own PTE programs.
Publications, Consulting, and Invited Talks...
Wenning was active in producing and publishing journal articles during his years as PTE program director and for a time thereafter. He wrote more than 30 articles and book chapters from 1994-2011. These articles can be found on the PTE program's Publications web page.
During 2007 Wenning was a consultant to the Chilean Academy of Sciences. He traveled to Concepcion, Valparaiso, and Santiago de Chile during the summer of that year, reviewing PTE programs of five major programs and making recommendations for their improvement. His work culminated in a report submitted to the Academy within a month of concluding the visit. During October 2011 Wenning will be traveling to Universitas Pendidican Indonesia in Bandung, Indonesia, to deliver a keynote address to a national physics education conference and work on a physics teacher education commission.
Also during this time, Wenning was invited to give many dozens of presentations of presentations around the country. The listing of these presentations can be found on Wenning's home page.
Professional Development Offerings
In addition to those things mentioned above, Wenning was responsible for a number of innovations during his14-year tenure as PTE program director:
Honors and other Recognitions
Programmatic Innovations
Kenneth Wester was hired in the summer of 2008 to replace Wenning. The story continues...
As part of the Felmley Hall Annex construction project, the ISU Planetarium officially opened without fanfare on September 1, 1964. Opening without a formal staff, physics professor Dr. Harold Born asked Illinois Wesleyan University's astronomer Dr. Ray Wilson to help with getting the new planetarium operational. That September Dr. Wilson gave several local astronomy club members a peek at the new facility, and explained how the Spitz A3-P star machine projected sun, moon, and planets, along with 1,354 stars, their coordinate systems, and the Milky Way. He subsequently was asked to “give a show” to the rest of the astronomy club. He did this on October 1, 1964, one month after the official building opening. Ray again explained the workings of the Spitz A3-P star projector, and allowed the membership time to do a bit of constellation study as well. Thus began the long and cordial relationship between the ISU Planetarium and the Twin City Amateur Astronomers that continued for many years under the guidance of various ISU Physics faculty members - primarily Drs. Born, Crew, Frahm - who gave monthly planetarium programs for the general public (1964-1971). After the Physics Department was established in 1966, the planetarium fell under its auspices. It then become known as the ISU Physics Department Planetarium.
From 1970-1974 Mr. Nerio Calgaro served as de facto part-time planetarium director while still a physics major at the University. He was hired officially as the planetarium's first director and served in this capacity from 1971 through 1974. Patrick McGee, a bona fide planetarium director with an M.A.T. degree from Michigan State University in planetarium eduction served as director from 1974 through 1978. Carl J. Wenning, also with an M.A.T. degree in planetarium education from MSU served in this capacity from August 21, 1978 to June 30, 2001. Thomas Willmitch, an experienced planetarium director was hired on November 1, 2000, to assist Wenning whose duties were split between the planetarium and serving as coordinator of the Physics Department's growing Physics Teacher Education program. Willmitch become the next planetarium director following Wenning's official departure as director. Willmitch was officially named planetarium director on July 1, 2001, and he continues in this capacity to the present.
October 1982: Co-hosts GLPA annual meeting with Mr. Sheldon Schafer of Peoria's Lakeview Museum.
1985-1986 Halley's Comet with peak academic year attendance of more than 25,000. Ayne Vandenbrook
1986 rebuild of A3-P star projector
Planetarium gift shop and Janet Moore...
References:
Adair, L.M. & Chiaverina, C.J. (2000) The preparation of excellent teachers at all levels. American Association of Physics Teachers white paper.
Ehrlich, R. (1998). Where are the physics majors? American Journal of Physics, 66(1), 79-86.
Harper, C.A. (1935). Development of the Teachers College in the United States, with Special Reference to the Illinois State Normal University. Bloomington, IL: McKnight & McKnight.
Wenning, C.J. (2001). A model physics teacher education at Illinois State University, Forum on Education, American Institute of Physics, Summer Issue.
Wenning, C.J. (2003). Change principles for departmentally-based physics teacher education programs. Journal of Physics Teacher Education Online, 2(1), 7-12.
Wenning, C.J. (2004). Repairing the Illinois high school physics teacher pipeline: Recruitment, preparation and retention of high school physics teachers ~ The Illinois model. Journal of Physics Teacher Education Online, 2(2), 24-32.
Wenning, C.J. (2005a). Levels of inquiry: Hierarchies of pedagogical practices and inquiry processes. Journal of Physics Teacher Education Online, 2(3), 3-11.
Wenning, C.J. (2005b). Implementing inquiry-based instruction in the science classroom: A new model for solving the improvement-of-practice problem. Journal of Physics Teacher Education Online, 2(4), 9-15.
Wenning, C.J. & Martin, R.F. (2005). Development of the physics teacher education program at Illinois State University. Forum on Education, American Physical Society, October.
Wenning, C.J. & Muehsler, H. (1996). Nondirected research projects in the high school classroom. The Physics Teacher, 34(3), 158-161, March.
* Planetarium History
With funding from the National Science Foundation, a planetarium was added to construction plans for the new Felmley Hall of Science in 1964. Not part of the original building plan, the planetarium was added only as an afterthought when the agency funding the expansion project reviewed a wish list from ISU. At the very bottom of this 30-item wish list was a planetarium. The National Science Foundation reviewed this aspect of the wish list favorably, and a planetarium was added with little concern for staffing, parking, and rest room facilities. It was only later agreed that the planetarium should serve the purpose of being used in the Physics Department’s astronomy course, for holding adult education courses, for instructing school and social groups, and for admitting the general public from time to time.
Opening without a formal staff, Dr. Harold J. Born, chair of the ISU Physics Department, asked IWU’s astronomer Dr. Ray Wilson to help with getting the new planetarium operational. During September of 1964 Dr. Wilson gave several astronomy club members a peek at the new facility, and explained how the Spitz A3P star machine could project sun, moon, and planets, along with 1,354 stars and the Milky Way. He subsequently was asked to “give a show” to the rest of the astronomy club. He did this on October 1, 1964, one month after the official building opening. Ray again explained the workings of the Spitz A3P star projector, and allowed the membership time to do a bit of constellation study as well. Thus began the long and cordial relationship between the ISU Planetarium and the TCAA that continued for many years under the guidance of various ISU Physics faculty members (1964 - 1971), and planetarium directors: Nerio Calgaro (1971 - 1974), Patrick McGee (1974 - 1978), Carl J. Wenning (1978 - 2001), and Thomas Willmitch (2001 - present).