Survey of the academic use of planetariums for undergraduate education

Open Access

Survey of the academic use of planetariums for undergraduate education

Daniel J. Everding and John M. Keller

Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 16, 020128 – Published 23 October 2020

Abstract

We present the analysis of the planetarium usage survey (PLUS), a two-part, mixed-methods initial study investigating planetarium use in the U.S. by undergraduate learners. Seventy-seven planetariums situated on college or university campuses within the U.S. completed an online survey during the fall of 2018 with 11 of those participating in online or phone interviews during the summer of 2019. Planetarium representatives described how their facilities were being used, types of subject materials that were being taught, what content styles are used, and how often learners are attending lessons in the planetarium. Results suggest that undergraduate learners in a planetarium environment are primarily novice, non-STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) majoring students, learning principally astronomy content, receiving instruction from a live presenter approximately once per month within a given course, for the purpose of receiving visualization-based scaffolding. Audience response systems like iClickers do not appear to be in widespread use in collegiate planetariums, and presented subject matter shows greater variety in planetariums with digital projector capacity as opposed to those with only analog projectors. Refinements to PLUS and future research plans are described.

Received 27 November 2019
Accepted 18 August 2020

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.16.020128

Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

Published by the American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Epistemology, attitudes, & beliefs Instructional strategies Learning environment Technology

Physics Education Research

Authors & Affiliations

Daniel J. Everding^*

Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, The University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, 80309 Colorado, USA

John M. Keller ^†

Fiske Planetarium, Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, The University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, 80309 Colorado, USA

^*Daniel.Everding@colorado.edu
^†John.M.Keller@colorado.edu

Article Text

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Issue

Vol. 16, Iss. 2 — July - December 2020

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Images

Figure 1
Histograms of IPS catalog seat count data for all respondents indicating “Univ/College” compared with IPS catalog seat count data for facilities of PLUS respondents. Similarity in these distributions’ descriptive statistics supports this study’s findings as characteristic of the nationwide group.
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Figure 2
Responses to Q2.1 concerning which learner populations (legend) are serviced by U.S. planetariums on college or university campuses—respondents were asked to select all populations that their planetarium served at any time (left-hand group) and which single population was their primary audience (right-hand group). Standard counting error ( $σ_{k} = \sqrt{N_{k}}$ ) is assumed for each data bin. An error in the data collection required the data to be filtered (described in text). Data reinforce findings about graduate learners’ comparative lack of planetarium use, and suggest that collegiate planetariums are most commonly used by the K-12 learner group, not collegiate audiences.
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Figure 3
Responses to Q2.2 concerning how often undergraduate- and graduate-level astronomy students are using the planetarium during a typical academic term (quarters or semesters). Undergraduate data propose a characteristic frequency between weekly and monthly; graduate data strongly contend that graduate learners do not practically use a planetarium.
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Figure 4
Responses to Q2.3a–f concerning which academic disciplines (left-hand axis) are taught in a planetarium environment in each overarching subject (legend). Standard counting error ( $σ_{k} = \sqrt{N_{k}}$ ) is assumed for each data bin. Data are labeled with their respective percentage of the available response pool (corresponding “ $N$ ” values in legend); the number of available responses per subject is specified in the legend. Noteworthy counts are seen across all the sciences, not just astronomy.
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Figure 5
Responses to Q2.3, collected into “astronomy only” (AS-only) and “astronomy plus” ( $AS + N$ ) bins, based on respondent selections of “Astronomical Sciences” and any other $N$ subject(s). Responses have been further binned according to respondent planetarium projector capacity and expressed as their percent-equivalent values. Standard counting error ( $σ_{k} = \sqrt{N_{k}}$ ) is assumed for each data bin—raw counts for each bin are listed along the horizontal axis beneath each column.
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Figure 6
Responses to Q4.1 concerning what content types are used by planetariums and what entity produced said content. Percentage labels show each data count’s contribution to the entire content type; the number of respondents for each content type is specified underneath each content type along the horizontal axis. Standard counting error ( $σ_{k} = \sqrt{N_{k}}$ ) is assumed for each data bin. Data propose that live presentations are more prevalent than any prerecorded material, and that a planetarium is more likely to make their own live material and have someone else make their prerecorded video content.
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