Shaw-IAU Workshops by the OAE

The MicroObservatory telescope network has been in continuous use by hundreds of thousands of learners worldwide since 1996. From more than 2 decades of research and development facing many challenges and some success, we report on: 1) findings from research that provide actionable evidence for what works; 2) some new tools and promising techniques (ours and others’) for engaging new audiences in remote observing; 3) a practitioner’s perspective on how and why the incredible potential of authentic STEM learning through remote astronomical observing platforms has not (YET) been realized; and 4) how participants in this IAU workshop can help to meet this potential through the broadening of participation to communities of learners that have been marginalized from deep STEM engagement

About Mary Dussault

Mary Dussault is a Science Education Program Manager and Instructional Systems Specialist at the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian, where she directs a number of national astronomy, physical science education and public engagement projects including the MicroObservatory Robotic Telescope Network. Mary’s work focuses on translating educational research into practice: using what we know about how people learn and what motivates STEM interest and identity to design effective learning experiences. Her curiosity about the universe was first inspired by the stars over the ancestral homeland of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy of Nations, in the Mohawk Valley in Upstate NY.

Watch a recording of this talk (external link)