Communicating as a Scientist and a Planetarian

Presentation theme: future sustainability and worldviews

Planetariums offer a diverse variety of programming for audiences ranging from very young children to adults who are lifelong learners. To serve these audiences, planetarians have to be able to adapt presentations for their target groups. Each planetarian might have a different way to approach the presentation with ideas and answers to questions that audiences might have. Being a presenter and a university graduate teaching assistant provides an interesting approach to how to introduce ideas and discuss topics with audiences that range in age and knowledge level. 

In a university classroom, there is a prerequisite of some base amount of knowledge, and the scope of the presentation is narrow. In a planetarium, there is no prerequisite knowledge, and the scope of the presentation is wide. My approach in a classroom to help students understand a topic, is to appeal to their first instinct to a problem. This usually involves probing their knowledge with questions, rather than giving answers. This is not so easily transferable to planetariums, as you would need to engage the whole audience rather than just an individual. My experience as both a university graduate teaching assistant and a planetarium presenter enables me to use skills from both areas to ensure that I can fully engage the audience and improve my ability to present information in both areas.

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