Like many professional educators, the staff of the Drake Planetarium and Science Center have explored the issue of how to make learning cool. Three years ago, their solution was to provide laser shows in the planetarium set to the music of popular classic rock, hard rock, pop and heavy metal bands.

So where does the learning part come in? Bowers said that comes before the rock show begins.

“We teach astronomy beforehand,” she said. “It’s interactive, and our staff teaches people how to use a star chart to find visible planets and constellations. We might feature some new technology, with information on the latest missions, and we have access to lots of NASA images. It’s a great way to get people interested in the nighttime sky, so they know what they’re looking at.”

“It’s a different take on what can be done in a planetarium,” said Pam Bowers, director of the Drake Planetarium and Science Center. “It was another way to use the dome environment to combine music with the stars.”

Some laser shows are devoted to one band, such as Laser Pink Floyd, Laser Led Zeppelin, Laser Beatles and Laser Metallica. Others are compilations based on a theme or era. For instance, there’s Laser Retro, which features songs by popular 1980s bands Tears for Fears, The Eurythmics, The Cure and Depeche Mode; Laser Vinyl, with songs by AC/DC, Queen, Kansas, Aerosmith and Van Halen; or Laser Pop, with songs by Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, Maroon 5 and Christina Aguilera.

The laser shows themselves are designed by a Florida company called Audio Visual Imagineering, which is a good match for the Drake’s state-of-the-art facility.

“(The laser shows) have 2-D animation and full-immersion 3-D,” Bowers said. “Thanks to the Best Buy Foundation, we have digital full immersion. It’s a digital and optic sky, a hybrid system. We now have the capabilities of big planetariums like the Griffith (Observatory in Los Angeles).”

Bowers explained that the laser shows themselves are more than just the mood-enhancing lighting you’d see at a rock concert.

“Every song is a story, and images and figures are created to tell the story that the music is about,” she said. “The Pink Floyd show has a prism with light going through it and separating out into the visible light spectrum. Other songs have images of monsters and dragons.”

The laser rock shows are featured three times per year, during the summer, November and December and around Valentine’s Day.

“We get a lot of tourist traffic and camps in the summer,” Bowers said. “We probably had 40,000 people this past time. And in the winter, people are just looking for something to do, and they love it. They come back every time and stay for three hours, watching several shows.”