Imaginarium lets students’
creativity soar

It looks like an observatory, but inside, it can be the whole universe.

The Hokulani Imaginarium at Windward Community College -- the Hawaiian word means "starry heaven"; the second part was made up on the spot to nail down the building's function -- opened a few years ago and has since become a campus spark plug for young imaginations.

Basically a multimedia learning center with an emphasis on science, the Hokulani was a logical outgrowth of WCC professor Joseph Ciotti's popular Aerospace Exploration Lab on campus.

He and other teachers take students around the world, into space and into tiny worlds using the building's sophisticated projection apparatus.

One of the first University of Hawaii astronomy graduates and a summer worker at New York's Hayden Planetarium as a kid, Ciotti joined WCC in 1987, when concepts of state-of-the-art science education buildings were considered, well, starry-eyed.

At the time, Hawaii was the only state with no planetarium in its educational system. The complex, with its intricate digital projection systems and a bigger dome than Bishop Museum's, eventually cost close to $4 million.

BURL BURLINGAME / BBURLINGAME@STARBULLETIN.COM The Hokulani Imaginarium looks like a space observatory but is a multimedia learning center on the Windward Community College campus.