Planetarium Programs Research Articles

How Interested Are Planetarium Visitors in Astronomy? Comparing Online and In-person Audiences

ABSTRACT During the COVID-19 pandemic, informal learning environments (ILEs) were forced to move programming online for the safety of staff and visitors. The Big Astronomy Project responded to the pandemic by releasing a planetarium show as a virtual YouTube 360 stream. This project was also utilized in the late stages of the pandemic in-person at planetarium theaters, offering an opportunity for comparison between two modalities of showing a planetarium program. In general, ILEs often have a clear ambition to spark interest and support existing interest in order to support continued engagement after a visit. We use the four-phase interest model to characterize and compare audience’s prior interest levels between a virtual and in-person environment. We used focus groups and interviews with audience members consisting of 46 individuals across the 2 modalities. We found that the individuals who watched the show virtually tended toward later phases of interest compared to those who watched the show in-person. We also explore how different audiences rated their level of interest. Based on these results we suggest that the virtual and in-person activities may need to be targeted to different audience interest levels.

Use Of Formative Assessment-Based Active Learning By Astronomy Educators Teaching In Live Planetarium Learning Environments

Planetariums were created to teach astronomy by simulating motions of the star-filled night sky; however, simply having a virtual reality facility to immerse learners beneath a projected night sky in and of itself is insufficient to automatically ensure student learning occurs. Modern teaching strategies, like active learning, have consistently shown to move students toward deeper understanding in classrooms; yet, active learning approaches seem to be only rarely observed in planetariums. Use of Ruiz-Primo and Furtak’s (2006) coding scheme to define and analyze formative assessment conversations between classroom teachers and students reveals that unless teachers are formally taught how to use formative assessment-based active learning, such approaches are largely absent in classrooms studied. The goal of this 2-phase study was to evaluate the nature of active learning-based formative assessment conversation cycles in the planetarium. The first phase systematically analyzes 26 recordings of live planetarium programs to describe and document presence of active learning teaching strategies. The second phase conducts interviews to determine rewards and barriers to using formative assessment-based active learning in the planetarium. Analysis suggests scant evidence of complete formative assessment conversation cycles, despite that varying degrees of interactivity between the planetarium lecturer and the audience do exist. It is not that planetariansdon’t ask questions, but responses rarely serve to systematically guide instructional decisions aligned with modern pedagogy. Moreover, these planetarians hold a wide range of definitions of what constitutes active learning and often view their primary responsibility as inspiration rather than education, lending explanatory power to why active learning is largely absent.

Simulated Sky

For centuries, the rich nocturnal environment of the starry sky could be modelled only by analogue tools such as paper planispheres, atlases, globes and numerical tables. The immersive sky simulator of the twentieth century, the optomechanical planetarium, provided new ways for representing and teaching about the sky, but the high construction and running costs meant that they have not become common. However, in recent decades, “desktop planetarium programs” running on personal computers have gained wide attention. Modern incarnations are immensely versatile tools, mostly targeted towards the community of amateur astronomers and for knowledge transfer in transdisciplinary research. Cultural astronomers also value the possibilities they give of simulating the skies of past times or other cultures. With this paper, we provide an extended presentation of the open-source project Stellarium, which in the last few years has been enriched with capabilities for cultural astronomy research not found in similar, commercial alternatives.

Stellarium: Simulation for Research and Outreach

AbstractOver the past decade the free and open-source cross-platform desktop planetarium program Stellarium has gained not only most of the computational accuracy requirements for today’s amateur astronomers, but also unique capabilities for specialized applications in cultural astronomy research and astronomical outreach. A 3D rendering module can put virtual reconstructions of human-made monuments in their surrounding landscape under the day and night skies of their respective epochs, so that the user can investigate and experience the potential connection of architecture, landscape, light and shadow, and the sky. It also played a key role in an exhibition about Stonehenge in Austria.Exchangeable “skycultures” allow the presentation of constellation patterns and mythological figures of non-Western cultures. Stellarium’s multi-language support allows community-driven translation of the whole program, which predestines its use in education also in minority languages.Stellarium is developed by a very small core team, but is open to external contributions.

Beyond the landscape: analysis of Neolithic circular ditch systems of Lower Austria with advanced virtual archaeoastronomy

<p>This paper describes developments in virtual archaeology that started in a research project about the possible astronomical entrance orientation of Neolithic circular ditch systems (German Kreisgrabenanlagen, KGA) of Lower Austria. Starting from data analysis in a Geographical Information System (GIS), we will cover a simple way of modelling, and discuss three ways of visualisation for the combination of landscape and human-made buildings together with celestial objects. The first way involves extensions to the modelling program SketchUp to bring in just enough astronomical data for scientific evaluation. The second introduces a set of extensions to the open-source desktop planetarium program Stellarium, which can meanwhile be used to load a standard 3D model format to allow detailed research in astronomical orientation patterns, and light-and-shadow interaction over many millennia, even for researchers less familiar with astronomical programming. The third presents a “serious gaming” approach, which can provide the most natural view of the landscape, but requires at least some, if not deep, familiarity with astronomical and 3D computer graphics programming and, therefore, due to this considerably larger effort, appears to be mostly useful for outreach of high-profile results to the public. The entrances to the KGA of Lower Austria turned out to be mostly oriented following a purely terrestrial pattern of up- and downward sloping terrain, but with one noteworthy exception.</p><p><strong>Highlights:</strong></p><ul><li><p>Virtual archaeology can help to better understand archaeological remains embedded in the landscape. Occasionally, the “landscape” concept must be extended to include the celestial landscape.</p></li><li><p>Open-source development allowed the combination of a desktop planetarium with 3D landscape and architecture visualisation. Also, datable changes in the landscape can meanwhile be simulated.</p></li><li><p>Astronomical elements added to a game engine can also be used to faithfully provide important insights while providing the most appealing visualisation environments so far, but with considerably more effort.</p></li></ul>

Acoustics for the Deaf: Can You See Me Now?

Although acoustics examples and demonstrations can be an effective tool for engaging students in introductory physics classes and outreach, teaching principles of sound and vibration to the deaf and hard of hearing needs to be approached carefully. The deaf and hard of hearing have less intuition with sound but are no strangers to some of the effects of pressure, vibrations, and other basic principles that are related to sound. We recently expanded our “Sounds to Astound” outreach program and developed an acoustics demonstration program for 80 visiting deaf students mostly between the ages of 13 and 18. Both this experience, which had a “See and Feel” approach, similar to what was proposed by Lang, and a specialized planetarium program helped reinforce for the students the opportunities that exist for them in higher education. This paper describes some of the pedagogical underpinnings, the demonstrations, their implementation and lessons learned, and student responses.

Hinode, the Sun, and public outreach

Extended AbstractHinode is a solar observation satellite in Japan and its launch was in September 2006. Its name means “SUNRISE“ in Japanese. It has three instruments onboard in visible light, X-ray, EUV to solve mystery of coronal heating and origins of magnetic fields.Hinode has been providing us with impressive solar data, which are very important for not only investigating solar phenomena but also giving new knowledge about the sun to the public. In order to efficiently communicate Hinode data to the public, we organized working group for public use of Hinode data. which are composed of both researchers and educators in collaboration. As follow, we introduce our activities in brief.For the public use of Hinode data, at first, we produced two DVDs introducing Hinode observation results. In particular, second DVD contains a movie for kids, which are devloped to picturebook. Now, it is under producing an illustrated book and a planetarium program. It turn out that the DVDs help the public understand the sun from questionnaire surveys. Second, we developed teaching materials from Hinode data and had a science classroom about the sun, solar observations, practice with PC such as imaging software at junior high school. As the results, they had much interests in Hinode data. Third, we have joint observations with high school students and so on in a few years. The students compare their own data with Hinode data and have a presentation at science contests. The joint observations make their motivation higher in their activities.It is important to record and report our activities in some ways. So, we positively publish papers and have presentions in domestic/international meetings. Though we are supported in budget, resources and so on by NAOJ Hinode Team, we apply research funds for promoting our EPO activities and acquire some funds such as NAOJ Joint Research Expenses and Grands-Aid for Scientific Research Funds since the launch.This way, since its launch, we have continued various and constant EPO activities for the public use of Hinode data and have been giving intense impacts and high interest to the public. As the result, our activities contribute in further extension of Hinode Mission. Those are quite unique and would be reference of other similar ones. Hinode is now operating and solar activities might get more higher.As long as SUN RISE, we would GO FORWARD!!

Astronomical activities with disabled people

AbstractAs we celebrate the International Year of Astronomy, we have been working on four different projects with the goal of making astronomy more accessible to people with special needs. These projects are 1) an astronomy book and web site for blind people, 2) an open source software for people with motor disabilities, 3) a planetarium program for the visually impaired and 4) educational material for intellectually disabled people.

Early elementary students' development of astronomy concepts in the planetarium

AbstractThe National Science Education Standards [National Research Council (1996) National science education standards. Washington, DC: National Academy Press] recommend that students understand the apparent patterns of motion of the sun, moon and stars by the end of early elementary school. However, little information exists on students' ability to learn these concepts. This study examines the change in students' understanding of apparent celestial motion after attending a planetarium program using kinesthetic learning techniques. Pre‐ and post‐interviews were conducted with participants from seven classes of first and second grade students (N = 63). Students showed significant improvement in knowledge of all areas of apparent celestial motion covered by the planetarium program. This suggests that students in early elementary school are capable of learning the accurate description of apparent celestial motion. The results also demonstrate the value of both kinesthetic learning techniques and the rich visual environment of the planetarium for improved understanding of celestial motion. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 192–209, 2009

Promoting astronomy in developing countries: an historical perspective

AbstractAny international effort to promote astronomy world wide today must necessarily take into account its cultural and historical component. The past few decades have ushered in an age, which we may call the Age of Cultural Copernicanism. In analogy with the cosmological principle that the universe has no preferred location or direction, Cultural Copernicanism would imply that no cultural or geographical area, or ethnic or social group, can be deemed to constitute a superior entity or a benchmark for judging or evaluating others.In this framework, astronomy (as well as science in general) is perceived as a multi-stage civilizational cumulus where each stage builds on the knowledge gained in the previous stages and in turn leads to the next. This framework however is a recent development. The 19th century historiography consciously projected modern science as a characteristic product of the Western civilization decoupled from and superior to its antecedents, with the implication that all material and ideological benefits arising from modern science were reserved for the West.As a reaction to this, the orientalized East has often tended to view modern science as “their” science, distance itself from its intellectual aspects, and seek to defend, protect and reinvent “our” science and the alleged (anti-science) Eastern mode of thought. This defensive mind-set works against the propagation of modern astronomy in most of the non-Western countries. There is thus a need to construct a history of world astronomy that is truly universal and unselfconscious.Similarly, the planetarium programs, for use the world over, should be culturally sensitive. The IAU can help produce cultural-specific modules. Equipped with this paradigmatic background, we can now address the question of actual means to be adopted for the task at hand. Astronomical activity requires a certain minimum level of industrial activity support. Long-term maintenance of astronomical equipment is not a trivial task. There are any number of examples of an expensive facility falling victim to AIDS: Astronomical Instrument Deficiency Syndrome. The facilities planned in different parts of the world should be commensurate with the absorbing power of the acceptor rather than the level of the gifter.

Process and Practice

I would like to discuss strategies for participation within planetarium programs. The planetarium is not only a theater in which passive audiences can hear lectures and see demonstrations. It is also a classroom in which people of all ages can benefit from involvement. Participatory programs have been advocated in the US since the early 1970’s, and the idea has grown and spread.One participatory method involves drawing. For example, an elementary school group can draw a planet group for two or three different times. The psychological value of learning by drawing is well known. And drawing positions of stars and planets with appropriate labels produces take-home sky charts. Families can and do use them to learn astronomy and enjoy the sky together.

Innovative Astronomy Education Programs for Developing Countries

It is desirable that planetariums in developing countries should make the maximum and most efficient use of the planetarium infrastructure and facilities to cover as much ground as possible in the popularization and dissemination of astronomy. After all, the number of planetariums in developing countries necessarily has to be small, and so specialization in specific disciplines or fields becomes a luxury. In India, for example, there are about ten planetariums, and another five or six will come into operation in the next few years. But these planetariums have to cater to a large population. In the U.S.A., which has a fraction of India’s population, on the other hand, there are hundreds of planetariums. The following suggestions are based on successfully implemented projects at the B.M. Birla Planetarium, Hyderabad.A golden rule for planetarium programs anywhere, and certainly in developing countries, is to start a planetarium sky show or activity with a local flair. For example, the local names of stars and constellations, local myths, local astronomers or, more specifically, topics like the history of astronomy in the region should be highlighted.

Planning planetarium programs

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Student achievement and attitudes in astronomy: An experimental comparison of two planetarium programs

AbstractOf the 1100 planetariums in the U.S., approximately 96% are smaller facilities. The majority of these use a program type called the “Star Show”, whereas some have advocated a different type called the “Participatory Oriented Planetarium.” The purpose of this study was to investigate the following question: “In a smaller educational planetarium, with a capacity of between 15–75 people, is a traditional ‘Star Show’ planetarium program, or a ‘Participatory Oriented Planetarium’ program the most effective method of instruction and attitude change?” A large scale investigation was conducted in Pennsylvania, with four smaller replications in Texas, Minnesota, California, and Nevada. In each planetarium, a group of 8–10 year old students were identified and randomly assigned to groups. 556 students were tested. The testing instruments included a paper‐and‐pencil content test and a Likert‐style science opinionnaire. The instructional programs were chosen from existing scripts to avoid bias in their construction. Both programs dealt with constellation study. Correlated t tests were used to compare pretest to posttest scores and two‐way factorial analyses of variance were used to compare the groups' posttest scores. It was concluded that, “The Participatory Oriented Planetarium program, utilizing an activity‐based format and extensive verbal interaction, is clearly the more effective utilization of a small planetarium facility for teaching constellation study and possibly for improving students' attitudes towards astronomy and the planetarium”.

Science Information for the Public: The Role of Scientific Societies

Scientific organizations have a special contribution to make to the understanding of public issues involving science and technology, as well as a special responsibility to do so. First, the societies' memberships include individuals with the necessary expertise to help clarify these issues. They also have the infrastructure and resources to bring together diverse groups of such experts. They have the ability to examine topics within their own areas of expertise and to identify what is scientific fact, what is scientific theory, and what is opinion unsubstantiated by data. In many cases, their biggest contribution may lie in identifying the limits of current knowledge, which helps put many issues in a better perspective. The diversity of societies' income-dues, publication subscription revenues, meeting fees, individual and corporate contributions, and grants from public and private sources-allows more flexibility in program development. In many cases, existing mechanisms, such as publications and meetings, can be used for public outreach. And their nonprofit, tax-exempt status acknowledges that they operate for a higher social purpose rather than merely serving the needs of a specialized constituency. This special status and combination of resources endows them with special obligations. Many scientific organizations take that mandate quite seriously. They have developed special programs to provide science information to the public. Some of their activities are highly visible, like the planetarium programs and Man and Molecules radio shows produced by the American Chemical Society or the radio and television programs produced by the American Institute of Physics. Others are less visible nationally but nonetheless important, such as special seminars, speakers' bureaus, and school programs. A large number of the nearly 300 scientific societies and academies of science affiliated with the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) devote some energy to public outreach at some level.* Because of the diversity of the AAAS' member societies, this article concentrates on AAAS and some of its public outreach activities; but my suggestions for future initiatives and questions that need to be addressed are applicable beyond the example of the AAAS.