Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal

Science communication through astronomy education: The creation, implementation, and assessment of Porto Planetarium’s science education strategy (page 24)
Costa, I. A.; Reis, R. C.; Moreira, E.

The Porto Planetarium – Ciência Viva Center (PP-CCV) is under the scientific and operational management of the Center for Astronomy/Astrophysics Research of the University of Porto, which also hosts the Institute of Astrophysics and Space Sciences (IA), the largest astronomy research unit in Portugal. This article presents the conception, development, implementation and evaluation of PP-CCV’s ongoing science education strategy, built upon two main pillars: Science Communication and Science Education. Those self-sustained pillars are interconnected, leveraging each other in a truly synergistic process. The assessment of the science education strategy was carried out through a questionnaire, participant observations and interviews. These results revealed how we can effectively connect science education and science communication using outreach structures already established in research units. However, those institutions must understand the school curricula and get to know the teacher’s ecosystem. That will be the foundation for us to build upon and to move from what students should know – the prescribed curriculum – to what is scientifically relevant for them to know – the most up-to-date foundations of scientific knowledge and process. With that, we can start from science education to reach science communication by framing the curricula with the most up-to-date scientific knowledge and processes.

Suggested Citation (APA)
Costa, I. A.; Reis, R. C.; Moreira, E. (2023). Science communication through astronomy education: The creation, implementation, and assessment of Porto Planetarium’s science education strategy. Communicating Astronomy with the Public Journal, 33, 24-28. https://www.capjournal.org/issues/33/33_24.pdf