The Institute regularly offers cosmology short courses for educators with the goal of integrating modern research into both formal and informal educational settings. These courses bring the latest discoveries, developments, data, and tools of research to diverse audiences e.g., planetarium staff and 4-year college faculty. We intentionally target "educators" because they amplify our efforts by translating course content to larger audiences such as museum visitors. KICP courses provide an authoritative background on evolving research areas - information that is often to new for text books. They also provide contact with the individuals responsible for the discoveries as well as tools and resource materials (e.g., visualizations of data sets) which help to ensure that this new content can be successfully implemented at participants' home institutions. These courses are further bolstered by follow-up activities and strong collaborations with vested stakeholders (e.g., the Great Lakes Planetarium Association, GLPA).

Strong partnerships increase the impact of the courses in many ways. Our collaborators help us to evaluate the needs of the communities that we are working with. They facilitate recruitment, help us with organization and planning, and help with implementation. Our partners also often host portions of these courses and follow-up sessions.

• Chicago Maps the Cosmos, 2007 Cosmology Short Course for Museum & Planetarium Staff (7-9 December 2007)
• Big Bang & Beyond, 21st Century Cosmology, 2005 Cosmology Short Course for planetarium staff (23-25 September 2005)
• Extreme Astronomy @ the Planetarium, 2004 Cosmology Short Course for planetarium staff (24-26 September 2004)
• Origin of Structure in the Universe, 2003 Cosmology Short Course for planetarium staff (26-28 September 2003)
• The New Cosmology: From Quantum Fuzz to the Accelerating Universe, 2001 Chautauqua Short Course for College Teachers (26-28 October 2001)

• Reaching the Public
• Reaching the Research Community
• R. Landsberg, 205th AAS Meeting January 2005: Cosmology Courses for Planetarium Staff: A Professional Development Tool That Brings Current Astrophysics to the Public

A follow-up survey of participants conducted one year after the Origin of Structure in the Universe course demonstrated the direct and long lasting impact such professional development can have. (N = 36)

• 71% Reported Direct Impact on Planetarium Shows
• 40% Reported MAJOR Change in Public Programming or Teaching
• 31% Reported New Collaborations
• 9% Created New Shows Based on Information Received in Short Course.

(note: a number of participants reported that they are working on new shows but had not yet completed them)

Within one year participants reported that 82,155 Visitors and 3,245 Students "Experienced Cosmology Content Directly Influenced by the 2003 Short Course". The participants also report that they are working on shows that incorporate what they learned at the short course, and so the multi-year integrated impact is expected to be very significant. Additionally this course was featured in a session on professional development at the 2004 International Planetarium Society (IPS) Meeting in Valencia, Spain.

• Summary Report of 1-year Follow-Up Survey
• Participant Survey 2004 Course - Extreme Astronomy @ the Planetarium
• Participant Survey 2003 Course - Origins of Structure in the Universe

These short courses have been held up as a model for professional development programs that connect with a previously neglected audience, museum staff, and provide a direct mechanism to incorporate current research in informal education settings.

Abstract: Teaching museum staff about the latest scientific advances offers a unique mechanism for bridging the gap between current research and the general public (see KICP Short Courses). Although research frontiers are where scientists' passion and enthusiasm are greatest and the public interest is piqued; it is a challenge to integrate complex forefront science, which is not yet found in text books, into museums settings. Intensive short courses for museum staff (a.k.a. professional development) taught by active researchers offer an effective means to connect the public with emerging science topics. Researchers provide the Big Picture, knowledge of what is and isn't significant, intellectual frameworks for describing new phenomena, and answers to questions that arise. Museum staff can then translate this new knowledge into content that is interesting and appropriate for the public, taking into account public tastes, misconceptions, pitfalls, etc. This "public" is enormous, an estimated twenty four million people visit US planetaria each year. Cosmology short courses for planetarium staff offered at the University of Chicago have been incredibly well received and resulted in new planetarium shows seen by tens of thousands of people. The key features of such courses will be described with an eye towards how this model might be adopted by other institutions, and in other areas of physics.

This research was carried out at the University of Chicago, Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics and was supported (in part) by grant NSF PHY-0114422. KICP is a NSF Physics Frontier Center.

Poster (PDF format)