Middle Atlantic Planetarium Society Candidate for Board Director

Kim Small

Planetarium Director

Sandy Run Middle School

Dresher,  Pennsylvania

Kim Small currently works as the Planetarium Director for the School District of Upper Dublin in Eastern Pennsylvania. In this role, her main responsibilities include: teaching, curriculum development, lesson plan production, planetarium lesson production and programming, teacher training, scheduling, public and community outreach, facility upkeep and grant writing. Kim earned a BS in physics, with an emphasis in astrophysics, and a Pennsylvania Teaching Certificate from Ursinus College. Further, she earned a MS in physics, with an emphasis in astrophysics, from Ball State University where she held a NASA Fellowship from the Indiana Space Grant Consortium. She has also taught Astronomy at Arcadia University as an Adjunct Professor.

Currently, Kim is serving as a NASA JPL Solar System Ambassador which allows her to gain first-hand knowledge of current solar system space mission. This information along with current education trends and standards are used to create unique and meaningful educational experiences for Kim’s students. Her recent planetarium productions and lessons have been designed to expand the planetarium program to include cross-curricular lessons. Each program created stresses a multiple intelligence teaching style so that all students can reach their leaning potential. Kim has written and received multiple grants totaling over $45,000.00 to improve the educational value of the planetarium program.

Kim hopes a more active role in the Middle Atlantic Planetarium Society will allow her the opportunity to further network with the other innovative members of the society. She believes that as a group we need to continue to stress the important educational value of our planetarium facilities. This will become even more and more important as changing technologies continue to impose limits or financial challenges for our field.