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| Photo from www.lymefreelibrary.org |
When someone calls to book a show I always ask the age and number of people attending. Going to a kindergarten class or a middle school assembly requires different science content and styles. Yesterday's show at the Lyme Free Library was challenging because I was told we would have a small group (10-30 people) with an age range that would be considerable. Astronomy was the requested topic. I prepared as best I could and hoped for the best. When the show started we certainly did have a diverse mix of ages. There were several elementary age children and one teenager, but about half the audience members were adults who had come without children.
The presentation really was a show for all ages. Judging by the questions, comments, participation, and attentiveness, the performance was a success.
How do you present an astronomy show and make it interesting for all ages? What was my strategy? What I decided to do was write a show that would start in a basic more child friendly place and slowly move to content for a more mature audience. I also made the show flexible, so that I had ideas on how I could adapt the show as I went, depending on the audience's responses. For example, if I ended up with all families I would spend more time telling constellation stories. I must say that this strategy would not have worked at every venue. The children were well behaved and eager to learn. They were patient and attentive during the more adult sections and the adults were patient during the more child friendly sections. I am still grateful that I had such a nice audience.
Some parts of the show seemed to appeal equally to all ages. As part of my discussion on asteroids I brought a good sized iron meteorite to pass around through the audience. Everyone got to experience the excitement of holding what was once the core of an ancient world now long destroyed, and the unexpected joy of feeling how heavy the thing really is. The adults were interested in questions about what minerals we might harvest from asteroids and how we know that meteorites actually come from space. The other part of the show that was a hit across age boundaries was a video from NASA of our next Mars rover. One the boys even found a section in a book with a picture of Pathfinder, the first Mars rover, and showed it to me as we were ending.
I am glad I had this opportunity yesterday. It was the first of its kind for me, and I am definitely interested in trying something like this again. If you are an educator in a similar situation, or have done this kind of thing before, I would love to read about your experience. Hopefully, reading about mine was helpful for you.
Here are some related links:
Asteroids as future resources: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/neo/resource.html
Curiosity, next Mars rover: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html
How do you present an astronomy show and make it interesting for all ages? What was my strategy? What I decided to do was write a show that would start in a basic more child friendly place and slowly move to content for a more mature audience. I also made the show flexible, so that I had ideas on how I could adapt the show as I went, depending on the audience's responses. For example, if I ended up with all families I would spend more time telling constellation stories. I must say that this strategy would not have worked at every venue. The children were well behaved and eager to learn. They were patient and attentive during the more adult sections and the adults were patient during the more child friendly sections. I am still grateful that I had such a nice audience.
Some parts of the show seemed to appeal equally to all ages. As part of my discussion on asteroids I brought a good sized iron meteorite to pass around through the audience. Everyone got to experience the excitement of holding what was once the core of an ancient world now long destroyed, and the unexpected joy of feeling how heavy the thing really is. The adults were interested in questions about what minerals we might harvest from asteroids and how we know that meteorites actually come from space. The other part of the show that was a hit across age boundaries was a video from NASA of our next Mars rover. One the boys even found a section in a book with a picture of Pathfinder, the first Mars rover, and showed it to me as we were ending.
I am glad I had this opportunity yesterday. It was the first of its kind for me, and I am definitely interested in trying something like this again. If you are an educator in a similar situation, or have done this kind of thing before, I would love to read about your experience. Hopefully, reading about mine was helpful for you.
Here are some related links:
Asteroids as future resources: http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/neo/resource.html
Curiosity, next Mars rover: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html
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