Scientists have long sought to engage public audiences in research through citizen science projects such as biological surveys or distributed data collection. Recent online platforms have expanded the scope of what people-powered research can mean. Science museums are unique cultural institutions that translate scientific discovery for public audiences, often conducting research of their own. This makes museums compelling sites for engaging audiences directly in scientific research, but there are associated challenges as well. This project engages public audiences in contributing to real
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TEAM MEMBERS:
Mmachi God’sglory ObiorahJames K.L. HammermanWill GrangerHaley Margaret WestLaura TrouilleBecky RotherMichael Horn
The night skies and the planet on which we live can be inspirational to young and old alike. In the run up to its 200th anniversary in 2020, the U.K.'s Royal Astronomical Society has put together a £1 million scheme to fund outreach and engagement activities for groups that are less well served in terms of access to astronomy and geophysics. This article outlines the projects funded and the impact they are starting to have.
It is estimated that there could be 40 billion earth-sized planets orbiting in the habitable zones of stars in the Milky Way. Major advances in long range telescopes have allowed astronomers to identify thousands of exoplanets in recent decades, and the discovery of new exoplanets is a now a common occurrence. Public excitement for the discoveries grown alongside these discoveries, thus opening new possibilities for inspiring a new generation of scientists and engineers that may dream of one day visiting these planets. This project investigates the use of interactive, intelligent educational technologies to generate interest in STEM by allowing learners to explore and even create their own exoplanets. Research will occur across several informal learning contexts, including summer camps, after school programs, planetarium shows, and at home. The approach is based on the idea of "What if?"questions about Earth (e.g., "What if the Moon did not exist?"), designed to trigger interest in STEM and frame exploratory and elaborative discussions around hypothetical science questions that are subsequently linked to the search for habitable exoplanets. Learners are able to interact with and explore scientifically accurate simulations of alternative versions of Earth, while making observations and posing explanations for what they see. Technology-based informal learning experiences designed to act as triggers for and sustainment of interest in STEM have the potential to plug the leaky STEM pipeline, and thus have profound implications for the future of science and technology in the United States.
The project seeks to advance the science of designing technologies for promoting interest in STEM and informal astronomy education in several ways. First, the project will develop simulations for exploratory learning about astronomy and planetary science. These simulations will present hypothetical worlds based on what-if questions and feasible models of known exoplanets, thus giving learners a chance to better understand the challenges of finding a habitable world and learning about what is needed to survive there. Second, a new PBS NOVA Lab will be developed that will focus on Exoplanet education. This web-based activity has the potential to reach millions of learners and will help them understand how planets are formed and the requirements for supporting life. Learners who use the lab will have an opportunity to invent their own exoplanets and export them for first-person exploration. Third, researchers on the project will design and implement Artificial Intelligence-based pedagogical agents to support learning and promote interest. These agents will inhabit the simulations with the learner, acting as a coach and guide, and be designed to be culturally responsive and personalized based on learner preferences. Fourth, interactive exoplanet-focused planetarium shows, that will involve live interaction with simulations, will take place at the Fiske Planetarium (Boulder, CO). Finally, the project will develop a server-based infrastructure for tracking and supporting long term development of interest in STEM. This back-end will track fine-grained behaviors, including movement, actions, and communications in the simulations. Such data will reveal patterns about how interest develops, how learners engage in free-choice learning activities, and how they interact with agents and peers in computer simulations. A design-based research methodology will be employed to assess the power of these different experiences to trigger interest and promote learning of astronomy. A range of different pathways for interest in STEM will therefore be considered and assessed. Research will measure the power of these experiences to trigger interest in STEM and promote re-engagement over time. Innovation lies in the use of engaging and intelligent technologies with thought-provoking pedagogy as a method for extended engagement of diverse young learners in STEM. Project research and educational resources will be widely disseminated to researchers, designers developers and the general public via peer-reviewed research journals, conference presentations, informal STEM education networks of science museums, children's museums, Fab Labs, and planetariums, and public media such as public television's NOVA science program website.
This project is funded by the National Science Foundation's (NSF's) Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program, which supports innovative research, approaches, and resources for use in a variety of learning settings.
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TEAM MEMBERS:
H Chad LaneNeil CominsJorge Perez-GallegoDavid Condon
As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program seeks to advance new approaches to, and evidence-based understanding of, the design and development of STEM learning in informal environments. This includes providing multiple pathways for broadening access to and engagement in STEM learning experiences, advancing innovative research on and assessment of STEM learning in informal environments, and developing understandings of deeper learning by participants. The team of Associated Universities Inc. (AUI), Michigan State University (MSU), California Academy of Science (the Academy), Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP), and Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA), will bring together experts in astronomy, STEM education, and planetarium show production. This work will tell the story of the people and places that make "big astronomy" possible, particularly the search for exoplanets and understanding of how planets form. The show and related materials will be presented in dozens of venues around the USA and internationally. Through a planetarium show and learning experiences that extend beyond the theater, the team will take visitors to extreme sites of the NSF ground-based observatories on the mountains of Chile and meet the diverse people who enable amazing discoveries in astronomy. In addition, the project develops the Dome+ model, which ensures engagement does not end with the planetarium. Dome+ will include additional content, weekly virtual sessions with STEM professionals, and a suite of closely linked outreach activities. Dome+ will serve as a model to extend engagement and increase the impact of future planetarium shows. Project goals include 1) increasing awareness of the research in astronomy being made at the NSF-funded observatories in Chile, 2) increasing awareness and interest in diverse STEM career opportunities at large observatories and related institutions in the USA, 3) increasing knowledge of science enabled by big observatories, 4) increasing Latinx perceptions as someone who can have a career at a major observatory, and 5) developing the Dome+ model and identify best practices for implementation. Iterative and summative evaluation of the project by collaborators at MSU will address four main questions: How does the Dome+ model affect visitors' perceptions of diversity of careers in STEM? How does the Dome+ model affect visitors' interest and understanding of Chile as an ideal observing location for astronomy? How does the Dome+ model support visitors' interest and understanding of the science of exoplanets? How do planetariums implement Dome+, and how does implementation affect the outcomes for visitors? The impact assessment component of this project takes places in four phases. The goals of the first phase are to leverage the expertise of the research team to inform the creation of the planetarium show and to set up a robust research agenda to be achieved in Years 2-4 of the project. The goals of the second phase are to collect preliminary data from visitors on their responses to planetarium show content and to use this information to advise on edits to the show and to develop the content and format of the web-portal and educational materials. The goal of the third phase is to then collect data on how effectively the technology-rich environments of the three components of the Dome+ model (planetarium show, web-portal, educational materials) work in concert to reach the intended goals of changing visitors' perceptions of diversity in STEM, engaging visitors with astronomy content on exoplanets, and exposing visitors to the wonders of astronomy research in Chile. The goal of the fourth phase is to perform data analysis, synthesize findings and make recommendations for future implementations of the Dome+ model for practitioners. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
The idea to link European citizenship and science education is surely new and uncommon in Poland, but we think, as SEDEC project, that can enrich both the panorama of science popularization outside and inside school system. I checked carefully curricula for every stage of school education looking for the topics concerning the developing of the European citizenship. I found that they are usually connected to the history, geography and some activities developing of the knowledge about generally defined citizenship. The spare topics connected directly to the science are present especially in
An effective communication of astronomy cannot take place without considering the view the general public has on the universe. Through a number of narrative interviews with non-experts, a research was carried out on personal cosmologies, to outline the public’s heterogeneous astronomical imagery. The result is a bundle of conceptions, perceptions and attitudes which are useful to interpret the difficulties the public experiences when facing the contents of astrophysics, and to establish an ongoing dialogue.
As we turn more and more to high-end computing to understand the Universe at cosmological scales, dynamic visualizations of simulations will take on a vital role as perceptual and cognitive tools. In collaboration with the Adler Planetarium and University of California High-Performance AstroComputing Center (UC-HiPACC), I am interested in better understanding the use of visualizations to mediate astronomy learning across formal and informal settings. In this research, I use quantitative methods to investigate how 122 post-secondary learners are relying on color to interpret dark matter in a
A Fulldome Planetarium Show for Space Science: A Pilot Project was designed to immerse and engage middle school students (grades 5-8) in space exploration, comparative planetology and the importance of sustainability on our own planet. Morehead Planetarium and Science Center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill led the project, which involved the development of a 27 minute fulldome digital planetarium show and supporting curricula. The project included advisors from NASA JPL, UNC’s Physics and Astronomy Department and the Wake County North Carolina Public School System. The show draws on discoveries by the Mars Exploration Rovers, Hubble Space Telescope and other NASA missions to compare and contrast geological, atmospheric, and other physical characteristics of the places visited by the show's main characters. The aims of the show are to provide an engaging learning experience that helps students understand the criteria used to classify Solar System bodies and appreciate the environmental conditions needed to support life as we know it. Further, the show aims to communicate why Earth - with a balance of systems and resources found nowhere else - is an "amazing oasis" in our Solar System. The Standards-Based Learning Activities for Middle School support and extend the content of the Solar System Odyssey show by providing clear, detailed ideas for pre- and post- visit lessons. The lessons center on Teaching about Technology Design, Integrating Science and Language Arts, Teaching about Environmental Systems and include science experiments, creative writing and vocabulary exercises, discussion and engineering design challenges. The lessons reference specific NASA missions, and some of the activities are modeled directly after previously produced NASA educational materials. The show and curricular materials have been translated and are available in Spanish.
The Maryland Science Center (MSC) Astrobiology project includes an interactive exhibit and Davis Planetarium program for school and public museum visitors, exploring the search for life in our Solar System, the search for exoplanets and an understanding of extreme forms of Earthly life. Four day-long Educator Workshops have taken place during the project with a total of 179 teachers participating.
Baltimore’s MSC is the lead institution, with the project led by PI Van Reiner, MSC President and CEO and Co-PI Jim O’Leary, MSC Senior Scientist, and science advisors consisting of astronomers, biologists, a geologist and educators representing NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Space Telescope Science Institute, Carnegie Institute of Washington, Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland and Maryland School for the Blind.
The project provides visitors with a sense of the Milky Way Galaxy’s size and composition, the galaxy’s number of stars and potential planets, and the number of other galaxies in the Universe. The exhibit explores Earthly extremophiles, what their survival signifies for life elsewhere in the Solar System, and examines possibilities for life on Mars and moons of the Solar System, explores techniques used to detect exoplanets and NASA’s missions searching for exoplanets and Earth-like worlds. The project looks to provide a sense of the vast number of potential planets that exist, the hardiness of Earthly life, the possibilities for life on nearby planets and moons, and the techniques used to search for exoplanets.
The exhibit and Planetarium program premiered November 2, 2012, and both remain as long-term Science Center offerings. Since opening, MSC has hosted nearly a million visitors, and with the Life Beyond Earth exhibit located in a highly trafficked area near the Davis Planetarium and Science On a Sphere, the great majority of visitors have experienced the exhibit. The We Are Aliens program in the Davis Planetarium has been seen by more than 26,000 visitors since opening.
In 2007, Chabot Space & Science Center, with partners LodeStar Astronomy Center and the Institute for Learning Innovation, received a National Science Foundation grant (#0610253) to develop, create, distribute, and conduct research on a full-dome planetarium show titled Tales of the Maya Skies. This physically immersive show was designed to transport viewers to ancient Maya civilizations and to push the boundaries of narrative approach in planetariums by presenting the film with a “cultural wrapper” of the Maya people and their achievements in archaeo-astronomy. The research conducted three