COSMO-02 COSMOLOGY EDUCATION FORUM

The COSMO-02 conference was held September 18-21, 2002 in Chicago, IL. The evening of Wednesday September 18 featured a two hour education forum dedicated to the question:

• Forum Description
• Invited Speakers, Abstracts, Notes, and Other Resources
• Forum Discussion Summary
• Forum Site and Time
• Registration
• Contact Organizer

Schedule:

First Hour: Three invited talks.

The invited speakers gave examples of reasons why we want the average educated person to know information from cosmology and some of the big ideas they find important for people to know, as well as some of the issues involved in formal and informal cosmology education.

Second Hour: Discussion forum moderated by Kim Coble.

In the discussion part of the forum, the audience gave input into a list of what, why and how we want people to know about cosmology. This gave scientists, educators, journalists and the public a chance to engage in a dialog on cosmology. The list is given below, as a starting point of topics to be included in astronomy/cosmology classes for non-science majors, informal public education (lectures, museums, writing, etc.), and for the average person interested in cosmology to have a starting point for learning what the key ideas are from cosmology.

Audience:

The audience was about 60 people, including cosmologists, educators, journalists and members of the public.

Objectives:

Provide a starting point of topics to be included in classes for non-science majors and for informal public education (lectures, museum, science writing, etc.)

Provide a starting point for the average person for learning what the key ideas are from cosmology.

Todd Duncan, Science Integration Institute and Portland State University

This session on cosmology education addresses the questions, "Why should the general public know something about cosmology and what key insights are most important to know?" Of course, there are many valid answers one could give to these closely related questions, and hopefully a wide variety of answers will be raised during our discussion. The aim of my talk is to describe one perspective on these questions in the context of a college cosmology course for liberal arts students who are not specialists in physics. Specifically, I suggest that knowledge of cosmology is important for all students because it can have a profound impact on the personal mental map by which they each view their relationship to the world, and which guides their everyday choices and actions through the perspective it gives on their individual role as part of the universe. In my talk I will make the case for the importance of cosmology for all students on this basis and discuss the selection and organization of topics from cosmology for a course motivated by this point of view.

• Todd's notes in PDF format
• Science Integration Institute

Adrian Melott, University of Kansas; founding Board member, Kansas Citizens for Science

My perspective in this discussion comes from the fact that I am primarily a researcher in cosmology, from educational experiences including public presentations on cosmology, but also from the experience with creationists and the state board of education in Kansas, and that of co-creating a cosmology curriculum for elementary school age students. I would like to make the case that many of the main ideas in cosmology are accessible even to very young children and should be presented to them, as well as in later public school curricula. Many people learn their science post-schooling from newspapers or TV science shows, and should have tools to help distinguish new hypotheses from well-established science. This demands some understanding of what science is and is not that differentiates it from other human activities. Cosmology has special "mystical" appeal; I once saw a shelf in an Atlanta airport bookstore labled "New Age, Occult, Astronomy". If used carefully, this bizarre conflation of topics can assist education.

• Kansas Citizens For Science
• Public Elementary School Cosmology Curriculum Kit
• Sunday School Cosmology Curriculum Kit

The Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg once said that "It's easier to make a universe than you might think." Explaining the physical universe is another matter. The recent revolution in our understanding of the nature, composition, and evolution of the universe as a whole has presented new challenges to educators. In my talk I will describe how I have attempted to meet these challenges in writing an introductory astronomy textbook used at the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, and other institutions. I will show how cosmology provides an excellent way to demonstrate the intrinsically provisional nature of scientific knowledge and the importance of being at once open to and critical of new discoveries. I will also show how studying cosmology helps students with the vital skill of using graphs to analyze functional relationships.

• Roger's notes in PDF format
• Roger Freedman's Home Page

The lively discussion was a dialog among scientists, educators, journalists and the public. We organized the discussion into a list of what, why and how people should learn about cosmology. A litmus test for each item in the "what" category was: "What good will it do someone to know this?" A litmus test for the "how" category was: "Will the information sink in if we use this method?" "Why" we want people to learn something from cosmology motivates much of the "what" and "how." One final question to consider: "What would success in cosmology education look like?"

First we brainstormed:

What	Why	How
Old (though not inifinitely so) Big Evolving Expanding Empty (vast spaces) Origins: where we come from in the cosmic sense What things are made of: the Universe and us Tie in with the development of life Cover what four year olds find interesting rather than research questions There's still deep stuff to learn about the Universe Process of science: its empirical nature	The cosmos is the backdrop against which we live and act; science provides a good way of discovering its nature Connections between the individual and the Universe People have an innate interest in cosmology People look for origins "story;" we should tell them what science has to say Promote love of learning Give a perspective of our smallness so that we might not fight over petty things Great examples to learn process of science Knowing the scientific process in one discipline helps people understand others Rationality is important for maintaining our high standard of living	Point out connections with audience experience Address audience background, even if difficult Make cosmology accessible Don't be intimidating Don't be an authority figure Use labs and hands-on exercises to engage students in process of science Use techniques found to work from astronomy and physics education research Use assessment techniques to see if goals were reached Take field trips to dark skies, planetaria Use technology (VR, etc.) to help students visualize difficult concepts K-12 implementation issues: provide needed expertise resources to teachers Develop good relationships with journalists

Most of these ideas fell into a few main categories that we kept coming back to:

What	Why	How
The Universe is vast in space and time The Universe is evolving The empirical process of science	The cosmos is the stage on which we live and act Science provides a good way of discovering the nature of our cosmos Help develop and maintain innate sense of awe; cosmology touches core questions	Address audience and make connections Make cosmology accessibile Use techniques to engage students in the process of science

Additional Links:
Astronomy Education Review (astronomy education research)
Kim Coble's cosmology links and references

Comments or additions to this list? Contact the organizer below.

The forum was at the conference hotel, the Chicago Hyatt Regency, from 7 - 9 pm on Wednesday September 18, 2002. The Chicago Hyatt Regency is located at 151 East Wacker Drive.

There is no registration fee and walk-ins are welcome and encouraged. If you know in advance that you will be able to attend the forum, send email to the forum organizer, Dr. Kim Coble in order to guarantee yourself a seat.

The organizer of the education forum is:
Dr. Kim Coble
University of Chicago Astronomy and Astrophysics
Adler Planetarium
coble@hyde.uchicago.edu
773-834-2103

The Cosmo-02 Cosmology Education Forum is sponsored by the Center for Cosmological Physics at the University of Chicago.

last modified 9/26/02

Disclaimer: This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under the AAPF program. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recomendations expressed in this material are mine and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).