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| Paper: |
IYA Programs Can Benefit from Evaluation, Research, and Publication in Astronomy Education Review |
| Volume: |
400, Preparing for the 2009 International Year of Astronomy: A Hands-on Symposium |
| Page: |
380 |
| Authors: |
Fraknoi, A.; Wolff, S.; Friedman, A. |
| Abstract: |
All over the world, astronomers and educators are planning outreach programs to celebrate the International Year of Astronomy in 2009. Large amounts of money and energy will be spent on a range of programs, some extensions of existing work, others quite new. Before embarking on IYA, we should probably ask ourselves: what will remain of all this effort in 2010 and beyond? A way to ensure that IYA leaves a legacy is to do formative and summative evaluation, conduct educational research, and publish the results. Evaluating informal science education programs, such as many of the IYA initiatives, is harder than evaluating classroom work, but recently NSF has sponsored the compilation of a new manual for just the sorts of programs IYA will include. In this poster, we present a resource guide for those wishing to do evaluation research for astronomy outreach. We also discuss the potential role of the online journal Astronomy Education Review in preserving and disseminating the lessons learned during and after IYA. |
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