Many students can identify celestial objects using planetarium software, yet often struggle to develop a lasting connection with the real night sky. This presentation describes an educational approach used with secondary school students in Iran, combining traditional star names, sky cultures, constellation figures, and their associated stories. Over multiple astronomy sessions involving approximately 150–300 students, these cultural elements consistently increased student engagement and improved their ability to remember stars and constellations. The presentation discusses practical methods, examples, and lessons learned from using cultural astronomy as a gateway to observational astronomy education.

Biography:

Mohammad Sadegh Faghanpour is an astronomy researcher, educator, and science communicator from Iran. Since 2019, he has been actively involved in astronomy education through student research centers, schools, public observing events, and outreach programs, reaching more than a thousand students each year. His work focuses on astronomy education, cultural astronomy, star names, and public engagement with science. He is an Associate member of the IAU Working Group on Star Names (WGSN), a member of the Iranian Office for Astronomy Education (NOAE), and contributes to national and international astronomy education initiatives.