Polar Planetarium Show: a new program connecting local scientists, science center educators, and the public to the poles
Abstract
The Pacific Science Center in Seattle, WA has a long-standing Science Communication Fellowship for local scientists to learn science communication skills and to develop hands-on activities to present to the public. This year, the 26th cohort of the fellowship, which includes eight scientists from the University of Washington and NOAA, worked with planetarium staff and Portal to the Public staff to create an interactive, live-narrated digital planetarium show about polar science. This is the first time planetarium shows at the Pacific Science Center have involved local scientists. Each scientist developed an individualized segment of the planetarium show about their specific polar research activities in collaboration with science center staff. This includes, for example, 360-degree imagery from the field, schematics, spatially-resolved data, and movies that were programmed by planetarium staff to be projected onto the half-dome planetarium. The planetarium technology and live format means that during any given show, images and locations on the Earth can be interactively selected by the planetarium staff in order to respond to the interests and inquiries of the audience. Each scientist's component of the show is supported by a common "backbone" developed collaboratively with the entire cohort and staff and presented live by planetarium staff members. The "backbone" serves to provide sufficient background to visitors and ensure common educational messages as well as both poles are covered. Here we present effective strategies for engaging the public with current polar science research through the live planetarium show format. We describe how we developed and refined planetarium shows, what types of imagery best translated to the planetarium format, and how the shows were received by the public.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2018
- Bibcode:
- 2018AGUFMED51A..07H
- Keywords:
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- 0815 Informal education;
- EDUCATIONDE: 0825 Teaching methods;
- EDUCATIONDE: 9310 Antarctica;
- GEOGRAPHIC LOCATIONDE: 9315 Arctic region;
- GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION