An ROB seminar is scheduled for Tuesday, May 17, 2022, at 10:30. This is intended to be a first of a series of seminars given in our institute.
Title: Teaching and learning astronomy and astrophysics in a planetarium – Open Call for collaboration with scientists of the Space Pole
Speaker: Prof. Dr. Jan Sermeus, Planetarium of the Royal Observatory of Belgium and KU Leuven
Location: Meridian Room, also online
Abstract: Astronomy is a gateway to science, part of science education from kindergarten to high school and a very prominent and popular part of science communication for all ages. In all of this, planetariums have taken a central role since their modern conception a century ago. Yet, despite all this learning and communication, people still have many wrong ideas about astronomical concepts and the nature of science. From research, it is well known that these misconceptions are very persistent. How such misconceptions are formed, to what extent they are a problem and how they should be dealt with are still open questions in (science) education research.
Prof. Dr. Jan Sermeus works at KU Leuven and at the Royal Observatory of Belgium under a Fed-tWIN mandate that aims to increase collaboration between the federal science institutions and the universities. He will present his research, which is focused on the conceptual understanding in astronomy and astrophysics and on the understanding of the nature of science. Given the connection with the planetarium and its place in astronomy communication and education, this includes figuring out how much a visitor picks up from a visit to the planetarium.
The seminar will end with an open call for collaboration with scientists of the Space Pole to develop research in science communication. In the seminar, the speaker will go into more detail on how this collaboration might take shape.
