400 Years of the Telescope is an interactive, multimedia projects that will provide an integrated set of informal science learning experiences that will enable the public to participate in real and virtual telescope experiences, understand the far reaching advances that the telescope has made possible, and discover how technology, science, and society are interconnected. Partners include PBS (Southern Oregon Public Television - SOPTV), Interstellar Studios, Leading astronomers and science writers, and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific (ASP)and two of the United States' premier planetariums: Carnegie Science Center (Buhl Planetarium) and 'Imiloa Astronomy Center of Hawai'i. Deliverables include a two-hour, high-definition documentary, airing twice on PBS in 2009, as a kick-off to the International Year of Astronomy (IYA2009), a full-dome and traditional 30 minute planetarium program available in 12 foreign languages, with free national and international distribution to 750 planetariums; a Website, and Community Events providing personalized telescopic experiences via events on site at science centers nationwide. The evaluator is the Institute for Learning Innovation.
The 400 Years of the Telescope Project, funded by the National Science Foundation (DRL #0813414), celebrated the International Year of Astronomy in 2009, a world-wide event celebrating the 400th anniversary of Galileo’s observations using a telescope which advanced the Scientific Revolution. This project required collaboration between 5 separate entities to deliver a PBS science special, web-based media and community outreach activities. The project’s goal was to engage the public in astronomy using a menu of linked choices to participate in observational astronomy. Project Partners Interstellar Studios, Southern Oregon Public Television, I’miloa Planetarium in Hawai’i, Tthe Buhl Planetarium in Pittsburgh, and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. The Institute for Learning Innovation (ILI) served as the project evaluator. Media-centered deliverables were linked with activity-centered choices to create awareness, attract interest and educate the public about achievements in astronomy and other sciences made possible through the use of a telescope. The project included 5 components: Media-Centered 1. A one-hour PBS documentary titled "400 Years of the Telescope" 2. A 22-minute planetarium program titled "Two Small Pieces of Glass" (in full dome and traditional dome formats) available in 22 languages. 3. A website www.400years.org providing individual investigations in astronomy and telescope. Activity-Centered 4. "Star parties" (night time astronomical viewing events) 5. Promotional events hosted by PBS affiliate stations at key planetaria and science centers Intellectual Merit from Summative Evaluation An evaluation was conducted for the project that showed a number of positive results for the 400 Years of the Telescope project. Almost one-third of those who participated engaged in more than one of the activities, and there was evidence that the different activities attracted somewhat different audiences, which allowed for a more diverse audience to participate in the project than if there had only been a single type of activity. There were a series of outcomes examined in the evaluation, including whether participants learned about astronomy or science, were more interested or engaged in astronomy, and feeling awe or being inspired by the project components. The evaluation found ample evidence that the components did in fact positively affect the outcomes mentioned above, and that there were differences in which outcomes the components were most likely to yield. This last point means that the different components did complement each other in terms of encouraging positive outcomes. There was evidence that people learned from the components, about astronomy in general as well as learning about more specific issues about astronomy such as the technology being used and the discoveries astronomers were making. Furthermore, the more components someone engaged with the higher were many of the main outcomes, including being more interested in learning more about astronomy and being inspired to look up at the night sky. Overall, the evaluation showed that offering multiple components for people to engage in did in fact help the project be more successful in reaching its outcomes. Broad Impacts The 400 Years of the Telescope Project partnership sought to increase knowledge of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), develop a new approach to engaging people in Informal Science Education (ISE), reach underserved populations, encourage people to use a telescope to explore the universe and support the overall goals of the International Year of Astronomy. Within in grant period, the hour-long television documentary was available to 99% of U.S. TV households and was viewed by an estimated 6+ million households through 4 PBS primetime broadcasts. A 5th national primetime broadcast is scheduled for November 2011. These figures do not include viewership on public television station’s multicast channels or viewership via PBS.org website video players, Apple TV and NetFlix. In addition 400 Years of Telescope was distributed internationally in 8 languages to 12 countries, reaching an additional 2-3 million viewers. The documentary reached underserved populations via English closed captioning. An English and Spanish version of the website was provided with over 100-hours of interviews by leading astronomers with transcripts available for downloading for academic use. The planetarium program "Two Small Pieces of Glass" was distributed internationally to 53 countries, over 1,000 theaters and offered in 22 languages. View the Universe There was evidence in the evaluation that the project inspired people to look up at the night sky. People were most inspired to look up at the night sky when they said they were also inspired to learn more about astronomy, but learning information and feeling a connection to the universe. Therefore, this project offers some suggestions for inspiring people to action, which types of components are most likely to do this, and that a combination of both learning and feeling connected yield the best results. This can be applied to and tested with many different types of project. The overall project was featured prominently in International Year of Astronomy promotion and 400 Years of Telescope activities were cross promoted IYA activities.
