Speaker
Description
This study explores the role of joy, awe, and wonder in informal astronomy education experiences such as planetaria, public telescope viewings, and group viewings of celestial phenomena (solar eclipse). Attending a planetarium show or peering through an observatory telescope at Saturn’s rings for the first time can invoke feelings of inspiration, excitement, awe, spirituality or even disbelief. Awe, in particular, has an important role to play in learning settings as an epistemic and positive emotion (Keltner, 2023), with the power to motivate and engage learning, especially for those who may feel left out of traditional classroom settings. In addition to sparking curiosity in astronomy and science fields, emotions such as joy, wonder, and related emotions sustain human mental and physical well-being (e.g., Watkins et al. 2018). Building on and making connections to previous studies, such as the and the “Awe Experience Scale” (Yaden et al., 2019) authors have developed a mixed-methods adult and youth survey instrument to measure joy, wonder, and awe in informal astronomy experiences that includes Likert scales, emojis, and areas to draw.The creation and implementation of these survey instruments is supported by ASTRO ACCEL (an NSF-funded global network-of-networks connecting astronomy researchers and practitioners) and the International Planetarium Society’s 2026 Planetarium Education Research Fellowship. Results to date, which include some 1,500 responses from the Museum of Science Planetarium in Boston, reveal that awe is manifest emotionally (e.g. feelings of serenity or beauty) and physically (e.g. jaw dropping) across all age cohorts in planetarium and star party settings. Awe is also associated with an increased interest in science, and to a lesser extent, religion and spirituality. Further results from additional sites and analysis will allow for comparisons across demographic characteristics of country, culture, religious or spirituality, identity, gender, deepening our understanding of awe in planetarium and informal astronomy settings.
| Stream | Education, Development and Outreach |
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