Catch the Stars in the Net!

Eight Years of Experiences in Communicating Astronomy via New Technologies INAF- Astronomical Observatory of Padova

C.A.P

. 200

5 –

Garch

ing

About me

Caterina Boccato

Astronomy degree

INAF-Astronomical Observatory of Padova - Italy

My formal role: project management of education, outreach and communication activities

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About INAF

The Astronomical Observatory of Padua belongs to the network of INAF Institutes

INAF contributes to basic and advanced Education and to Public Outreach of Astrophysics and Space Science.

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INAF has been constituted in July, 2000

http://www.pd.astro.it/POE

POE at Padua Observatory

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• 33 Web sites in www.lestelle.net

• 1200 questions and answers every year

• 2000 classes enrolled in our educational projects in the last 3 years

• 5000 members of our weekly newsletter

• 100.000 users/year and thousands of hits/day when a particular astronomical event occurs (eclypse, venus transit…)

Some numbers

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The Web door, Lestelle.net, in fact only represents the “visible” part of a more complex project of didactics and popularisation of our Science

Furthermore the group, thanks to some past and recent experiences, manages a very large network of Italian schools (1014 at the time of writing)

We are privileged because we have time to test new and different approches with the public, new media, new technologies and last but not least new content

One single point

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All our initiatives are firstly planned and then developed

within a focus group which gives us the proper feedback

What I mean when I say: to test

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and then, only after this test phase, they are published on the Web or applied at School, etc...

Key to the relationship between science and the public is trust

Models of the public and their understanding have developed

Models of communication too have become more complex

Communication is a process of negotiation: it is one of a mutual getting-to-know.

Why testing is so important for communication?

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New technologies for Education

The Virtual Planetarium has been tested in several schools during the second part of the school year 1997/98 and during the whole 1998/99 school year.

The first example of best practice

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1997

After The Virtual Planetarium in 1997

1999 Heavens above!

2001 Life in the Universe

2002 -2005 Alla scoperta del Cielo

Education: a never ending experiment

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Trust is hard won and easiliy lost

"Vita nell'Universo" and “Alla Scoperta del Cielo” have been and continue to be special projects because they have given the chance to experiment a new educational approach: starting from the students to reach the Schools.

This has been made possible by the fascination of astrophysics itself, by the experience gathered over the past years of work in the field, by the language adopted and, not last, by the technologies employed.

They have produced satisfaction, not only to the youngest but also and especially to teachers who have found in these projects a valid support to their fundamental and essential role of educators.

A new approach

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Learning from Starlight

A mobile learning project

Firts testing phase: September 2004 – June 2005

Education: the future

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The projects has used a suitable equipment granted by Hewlett Packard Foundation which gave us 26 of these tablet PC and 26 Pocket PC and other useful devices for a complete planning of an educational activity

Education: the future

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www.pd.astro.it/hp

OUTREACH

2000 The Sky at your Fingertips

EDUCATION

2001 Universe for Dyslexia and other works from Schools

Astrophysics and Handicap

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INFORMATION

www.astronews.it

New content and…

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URANIA

a weekly Astronomy and Astronautics news-bulletin, with:

An audio version mp3 - especially addressed to young people

A radio version (more than 30 radio networks!)

A flash version

An html version

… new(?) media

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A scientific bulletin produced in Italy by professional astronomers

It deals with Astronomy, Space missions, sky events and curiosities

www.cieloblu.it

• to expose with scientific correctness the information proposed by other media (TV, newspapers...)

• to inform in a simple way, avoiding any sensationalism

• to fascinate people with sky and create an interest in Astronomy and Space science

• to give special emphasis to:- consequences of aerospace research on everyday life

(telecommunications, environmental monitoring, diagnosis instruments for Medicine, …) - involvement of Italy and Europe in the astronomical and

Space research- economic and technological aspects of this kind of

research

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Main goals

• Urania is a simple, modern and agile way to keep oneself up-to- date about Astronomy and Space

• the language is direct, simple and correct at the same time, the style is quick to fit in the new communication media, with a strong interaction between text, audio and video

• the aim is to inform, entertain, stimulate people’s interest in Science, which is a common part of everyday life

• in particular, both radio and web are well suited for bringing young people closer to Science, stimulating interest, discussions and investigations at home or at school

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The importance of being informed

POE at INAF

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Communication is a process of negotiation

Public need correct scientific information

Be carefull!

Information must be given respecting the audience

Conclusion

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A good advice

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“The reader for whom you write is just as intelligent as you are but does not possess your store of knowledge, he is not to be offended by a recital in Technical language of things known to him (e.g. telling him the position of the heart and lungs and backbone).

He is not a student preparing for an examination and he does not want to be encumbered with technical terms, his sense of literary form and his sense of humour is probably greater than yours.

Shakespeare, Milton, Plato, Dickens, Meredith, T.H. Huxley, Darwin wrote for him. None of them are known to have talked of putting in "popular stuff" and "treating them to pretty bits" or alluded to matters as being "too complicated to discuss here". 

If they were, they didn't discuss them there and that was the end of it