All Kepler Education Projects
Planetarium programs reach students and teachers (formal education) and the general public through school, science center, and museum planetaria (informal education). Kepler produces two planetarium programs for broad dissemination to small and large sized planetaria. Materials developed for these programs will also be available for video products, broadcast type science programs, and large planetaria that produce their own programs on the search for extrasolar planets for special emphasis on Kepler. The content of all these programs support the National Science Education Standards (NSES), especially those related to “Earth and Space Science,” “History and Nature of Science,” and “Science and Technology.”
Small planetarium programs with audience participation.
For the small planetarium facility common in schools and small science centers and museums, the Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS) Holt Planetarium develops an interactive planetarium program optimized for group sizes of 25 to 35 people. The program engages the visitors directly in activities and demonstrations. This new Kepler program is disseminated as part of the LHS Planetarium Activities for Student Success (PASS) series, published by Learning Technologies, Inc., the inventor and distributor of the widely used STARLAB portable planetaria. The PASS series is widely used in school planetaria. One hundred copies of the interactive planetarium program are distributed to the small-dome community by application at no charge to the user.
Medium-size planetarium programs.
The SETI Institute (SI) will develop and disseminate a planetarium program for larger facilities that offer show-style programming to audiences of 50 to 300 people. This show features multi-media and a recorded narration with music and sound effects. A planetarium producer will be selected via a proposal process conducted by the SETI Institute that will identify an appropriate organization to produce the program in cooperation with SI and LHS. The program is developed and tested over a 2-year period (FY 06-07), and distributed widely during early FY 08, the year that the Kepler spacecraft is launched.
Kepler team members have conducted workshops at planetarium conferences to get a variety of planetarium staff input to define the program and best suit the needs of the planetarium community. Content possibilities for include general planet-finding techniques (Doppler, astrometric, etc.), an audience activity or demo of the transit method of extrasolar planet discovery, and historical vignette about Johannes Kepler. Program information is also shared via papers and sessions at regional planetarium meetings and at the International Planetarium Society meeting.
In FY 11-FY 12, a revised module is created for the planetarium program and video updates reflecting the discoveries made by the Kepler team during the first 4 years of observations with particular attention to the discovery of how many terrestrial-sized planets in habitable zones exist elsewhere in the universe.
Impact: We expect one hundred planetariums showing the Kepler planetarium show to reach several thousand people in the duration of the mission. For both programs, planetarium directors receiving free show kits are required to report on use (attendance and numbers of presentations) and to provide summative evaluation of the program. The planetarium programs can go with the NSF-funded Alien Earths exhibit developed by SSI.
The video products (DVDs) will benefit the general public and families, with schools/colleges a secondary audience, with possible use by public broadcasting system, National Geographic, Discovery, NASA CORE, educational organizations like the ASP, and in conjunction with the Alien Earths exhibit via museum bookstores.
Evaluation: Front-end, formative, and summative evaluation for planetarium programs and broadcast video are coordinated by LHS Research, Evaluation, and Assessment (REA) team with cooperation from the partner institutions.
