nasa’s chandra x-ray observatory education, public engagement & communications impacts: ...

NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory Education, Public Engagement & Communications Impacts: CollaborationsArcand, K., Lestition, K., Watzke, M., Edmonds, P., Tucker, W. • Chandra X-ray Center/Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory • 6 0 Garden Street, Cambridge, Mass., 02138

AbSTrACT. The goals of Chandra’s multi-faceted education, public engagement and communications program (aka Education and Public Outreach, or EPO) are to provide open access and multiple opportunities to learn about new discoveries, to increase learning opportunities for diverse audiences, and to engage the imaginations of students, teachers and the greater public. Chandra EPO develops educational products and activities that share discoveries about the high-energy Universe in context with some of the fundamental questions being asked in physical sciences today. The starting point for all Chandra EPO is our established working relationships with scientists and other members of the Chandra mission team. Once our products and activities are developed with expert input, we partner with organizations such as the National Science Olympiad, the 4-H, the NASA Museum Alliance and the American Library Association, among others, to leverage external distribution networks for national impact. Enabling and sustaining a network of “volunpeers” empowered to organize science education events in their communities further strengthens the reach of educational science materials. We summarize a sample of our synthesized suite of programs in informal and formal education that communicate the compelling topics that the high-energy Universe can reveal, as well as provide an overview of the guiding research.

Science Results

Research & Formative Evaluation

Educators Scientists

Elementary SchoolMiddle SchoolHigh SchoolCollege

Educators#womeninstemSpecial NeedsFamilies

Amateur AstronomersScientistsGreater Public

Audience-specific scAffolding

Digital Outputs & Social Media

National Distribution Networks (4H, ALA, National Science Olympiad, etc.)

Network of Volunpeers

leverAge networks for nAtionAl impAct

summAtive evAluAtion

Best Practices

DESCrIPTIONThe starting point of Chandra EPO whether formal education, informal education, or other communications, is the direct connection and close working relationships with the scientists whose research forms the basis for all products and other technical members of the Chandra team.

Selected science results or technology-dependent events are folded into Chandra’s formal and informal education programs, which are aligned with national teaching and professional development standards for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) subjects.

Chandra’s partnerships outside the high-energy astrophysics community are a key component for leveraging expertise, audience building, knowledge sharing, and development and dissemination of high-quality Chandra resources. Such external partnerships

volunpeer networks: Chandra has led large-scale public science projects including From Earth to the Universe (FETTU), From Earth to the Solar System (FETTSS), Here, There and Everywhere (HTE), and Light: Beyond the Bulb (for 2015 International Year of Light). These projects have led to the crea-tion of an extensive network of “volunpeers” who activate to create community education events that draw on local context, culture and knowledge bases. Through this sustained network (with a high percentage of “repeat customers”), Chandra, other NASA material, and broader science content in both English and Spanish has been tailored and placed in non-traditional and often “everyday” venues for informal science learning such as public parks, cafes, and metro stations. With attendance at these events by tens of millions of people, “viral” results are produced at relatively low cost.

cross-disciplinary content & collaborations: Here, There & Everywhere is an informal education STEM program that connects scientific phenomena—from lensing to eruptions—across vastly different scales from here on Earth to across the Universe. The original concept was derived from audience feedback to prior programs such as FETTU. Content is drawn from multiple science missions and highlights the cross-cutting impact of NASA’s science portfolio. Working with the American Library Association (ALA) has expanded the reach of the project to scores of libraries, small science centers, and community groups. These groups worked with classroom teachers and teacher training programs to present programs tailored not only to the general public but to schools and preservice teachers. HTE also partnered with the 4H to train teenaged counselors to bring HTE to their local areas. Because HTE materials align well with elementary and middle school science curricula, a more formal education program of aligning content to NGSS standards is in progress. We have partnered with the Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Center at Framingham (MA) University to initiate a teacher professional development experience based on this material, with potential for national expansion through the McAuliffe network.

tactile programs: Chandra’s special needs products bring astronomy and other cross disciplinary science content into schools, libraries, and other facilities for the blind. Partnering with experienced special needs educators for formative evaluation, and with testing performed with visually impaired children and educators at schools for the blind, these materials directly respond to user needs. Partnering with the National Federation for the Blind as well as schools for the blind, special needs collections in libraries, and international groups for the visually impaired led to dissemination and additional network creation, and ultimately resulted in new products responding to user needs for more general science content in tactile form. Chandra EPO also leveraged the Smithsonian Digitization and 3D group to create open access printable exploded stars for additional tactile learning.

national science olympiad (nso): NSO competitions for middle and high school students involve 6800 teams with their coaches and include over 100,000 students in all 50 states and US territories each year. Chandra has partnered with the NSO to infuse current NASA science results into the astronomy competitions, preparing the competition tests, providing training and study outlines for the coaches and linking the team members and their coaches with NASA resources. The majority of NSO teams are still sponsored as afterschool activities with faculty volunteer coaches, but many are not from relevant science areas and increasing number of teams work with parental or community/local industry volunteers. While not education products in the traditional sense, Chandra has provided linkage to current NASA science results in all astronomy competition materials used in these events and to training for coaches from disparate backgrounds.

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Best Practices

Science Results

Research & Formative EvaluationEducators Scientists

Elementary SchoolMiddle SchoolHigh School

CollegeEducators#womeninstem

Special NeedsFamiliesAmateur AstronomersScientists






Best Practices

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Science Results












Best Practices

Science Results



Elementary SchoolMiddle SchoolHigh School

CollegeEducators




lever-Age


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Best Practices

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Best Practices

data in the classroom & coursera mooc: For 9 years, Chandra sponsored the Astrophysics Summer Institute (ASI) in conjunction with Rutgers University. A unique program for high school students and their teachers, the ASI developed an easy-to-use suite of analysis tools that enables students to carry out analysis of real data sets from Chandra observations. The program included an intensive summer program co-taught by a Rutgers professor of Astrophysics and a professor from the School of Education. Students participated in an immersive STEM experience while teachers were introduced to inquiry-based pedagogy. Students were mentored by astronomers over the next year while they carried out individual research projects. While evaluations showed successful results, the number of students that such intensive mentoring was able to engage was small. The advent of distance learning platforms such as Coursera led to the program’s transformation into a MOOC. As of its second offering on Coursera as a Rutgers physics class, over 40,000 students cumulative have enrolled and have had the opportunity to analyze data from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Telescope. The original software and activities remain online on the Chandra web site and are accessed by both teachers and individuals around the country.

pd: Chandra’s education activities include professional development (PD) workshops for classroom educators and providers of informal education programs in museums, after school and community organizations. We provide educators with the standards-based resources and knowledge to infuse NASA SMD content into their activities and classrooms and develop materials and activities that increase student interest in NASA SMD science and STEM subjects. Chandra PD workshops at the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) meetings are evaluated not only by our outside evaluators but also through NSTA’s own survey instruments. All educational material presented has been approved through the NASA product review. A new offering for elementary students, STOP for Science, an education program addressing cross-cutting basic science principles (e.g. speed, measurement, etc) intended to engage younger students through out-of-classroom school-wide use has been distributed to over 250 schools in 41 states (including 18 of the lowest performing US school districts), plus the District of Columbia and APO’s. It has been selected for a PD program to be developed through the Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Center at Framingham (MA) University. The program will be available for national distribution through MCAuliffe center network.

evaluation program: Through our independent outside evaluator, the Goodman Research Group, (GRG) summary surveys of specific product areas, longitudinal studies of usage and impact, focused studies to determine needs and content, and formative and summative evaluations of specific products or activities have been carried out. Please see the reports and publications listed for specific evaluations, for both detailed methodologies and results. (http://chandra.harvard.edu/impact/reports.html)

discussion: Chandra’s informal and formal education projects include a broad range of current and cross-cutting STEM topics and evaluations of these efforts have shown demonstrable increases in interest and learning gains in science and astronomy. Results have also shown the creation of new informal science education networks, content dissemination and additional capacity building which empowers local organizations as trusted science outreach organizers for their community. These projects have also reached traditionally underserved audiences such as Spanish speakers and visually impaired, broadening opportunities for engagement with science content. Increased engagement and interest in science among the public and informal educators has led to requests for more formal programs based on the science content initally introduced through informal means. We are encouraged by the greater inclusion of astronomy-related content in the NGSS and expect that education products with latest space science research content will experience increased relevance and use in the classroom.

HIGHLIGHTED IMPACTS

• Trusted, valuable science resource

• 10s of millions of participants served

• Learning gains, increased interest in astronomy

• Network of practitioners created and sustained

allow and encourage network creation and building, synergistic activities and innovative approaches to communicating with public audiences.

The Chandra EPO group is also on the forefront of rigorously studying the most effective ways of communicating information. For example, Chandra EPO initiated “Aesthetics and Astronomy,” a unique international project that has researched topics about common questions and misconceptions when viewing astronomical data such as the audience interpretation of color and scale, or what type of caption best conveys meaningful information. This research has led to a series of “best practices,” all of which have been applied to Chandra electronic and physical products. The findings are reported in peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings. (http://astroart.cfa.harvard.edu).

formAl educAtion metric

Number of K-12 Teachers, Direct Interactions 898

Number of K-12 Student, Direct Interactions 4,500

Number of K-12 Teachers, Indirect Interactions 97,500

Number of K-12 Student, Indirect Interactions 893,000

informAl educAtion metric

Participants/Observers Engaged 8,800,000

public outreAch metric

Outreach, Direct Interactions 12,000

Outreach, Indirect Interactions 9,900,000

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This material is based upon work supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under proposal NNX11AH28G issued through the Science Mission Directorate. Information Design/Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss

CHANDrA PubLICATIONS Arcand, K.K., Watzke, M., “Here, There & Everywhere: Science through Metaphor, Near and Far” Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal, issue 15, July 2014

Smith, L.S., Arcand K.K, Smith, J.K, Smith, R.K, Bookbinder, J., Watzke, M. “Examining Perceptions Of Astronomy Images Across Mobile Platforms” JCOM Science Communication Journal. March 2014.

Arcand, K.K., Watzke, M., Rector, T. Levay, Z.G., DePasquale, J., Smarr, O. “Processing Color in Astronomical Imagery”, Studies in Media and Communication, December 2013

Arcand, K.K. “Accessible Science”, “Bringing Science to the Masses.” International Innovation. Summer 2013.

Arcand, K.K., Watzke, M., Framing “From Earth to the Solar System” as Public Science” Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal, issue 13, April 2013

Arcand, K.K., Watzke, M., “Creating Public Science with the From Earth to the Universe Project” Science Communication. September 2011; 33 (3)

Arcand, K.K., Watzke, M., Smith, L, Smith, J.K “Surveying Aesthetics & Astronomy: A project exploring the public’s perception of astronomy images and the science within”

Communicating Astronomy with the Public. Issue 10 December 2010.

Smith, L.S., Smith, J.K, Arcand K.K, Smith, R.K, Bookbinder, J., Keach, K. Aesthetics and Astronomy: Studying the public’s perception and understanding of imagery from space. Science Communication Journal. August 2010.

Arcand, K.K, Watzke, M., “Bringing the Universe to the Street: A Preliminary Look at Informal Learning Implications for a Large-Scale Non-traditional Science Outreach Project”.

JCOM Journal of Science Communication. Vol 09, Issue 02, June 2010.

Arcand, K.K., Watzke, M., De Pree, C., Exploring the Invisible Universe: A Tactile and Braille Exhibit of Astronomical Images. Communicating Astronomy with the Public. Issue 8, pp 15-17, June 2010.

Arcand, K.K, Watzke, M, “On the Journey From Earth to the Universe”. Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal. pp10-13, November 2009.

Young, D. “Ice Core Records – From Volcanoes To Supernovas; & “Pulsating Variable Stars and the Hertzsprung-Russell Diagram” The Earth Scientist, Volume XXVIII, Issue 1, Spring 2012.

Etkina, Matilsky, and Lawrence, “Pushing to the edge: Rutgers Astrophysics Institute Motivates Talented High School Students” Journal of Research in Science Teaching 40, #10, 958-985, 2003.

LITErATurE rEvIEW Bell, P., Lewenstein, B., Shouse, A.W., Feder, M.A. (eds) (2009), Learning science in informal environments: People, places and pursuits, Washington D.C., The National Academies Press.

Brown, C., Propst S. and Woolley, M. (2004). Report: Helping researchers make the case for science. Science Communication, 25:(3), pp. 294-303.

Falk, J.H. (2005), Free-choice environmental learning: Framing the discussion, Environmental Education Research 11: 265-280.

Franks, S. E. R., Peach, C., McDonnell, J., and Thorrold, A. (2005). Broader impact: Guidance for scientists about education and public outreach. EOS Trans AGU, 86:(12), pp. 121, 129.

Gregory, J., and Miller, S. (1998). Science in Public: Communication, Culture and Credibility. Cambridge, MA: Basic Books.

Morrow, C. (2000). A Conceptual Framework for EPO Planning. Diagram. Space Science Institute.

National Research Council. (1996). The Role of Scientists in the Professional Development of Science Teachers. Washington DC: Committee on Biology Teacher Inservice Programs, National Academies Press.

Smith, J.K. (2008), Learning in informal settings. Psychology of Classroom Learning: An Encyclopedia, Farmington Hills, MI, Cengage Learning.

Scotchmoor, J., Marlino, M. R., and Low, R. (2005). Making a Broader Impact: Geoscience Education, Public Outreach, and Criterion 2 (Report of workshop funded by NSF, May, 2005): Univ. of Calif. Museum of Paleontology, Berkeley, &

Digital Library for Earth System Edu. Program Ctr, Univ. Corp. for Atmospheric Research.

Boyle, Paul J., Vision Paper: COSEE Future (Centers for Ocean Science Education Excellence).

KEy CHArACTErISTICS

• A multifaceted Public Communications & Engagement program

• Direct connection and established working relationships with the scientists whose research forms the basis for all products

• Products and activities evolve from an integrated pipeline design, encourage users toward deeper engagement

• Accessible to non-elite audiences; target underserved audiences such as women, Spanish speakers, sight and hearing impaired

• Cross-cutting programs promote creative thinking, add relevance, support collaborative practices

• Programs provide mechanisms for developing and sustaining new audiences and partnerships

• Cycle of research & evaluation informs practice at all points of program creation

• Products use emerging technologies and track user trends

• Education products undergo NASA evaluation and align with national standards

• Program undergoes comprehensive outside evaluation

CASE STuDIES