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Paper: Lessons Learned from Successful Online Initiatives
Volume: 531, ASP2020: Embracing the Future: Astronomy Teaching and Public Engagement
Page: 271
Authors: Bolduc-Duval, J.; Naud, M.; Reid, M.; Poulin, G.
Abstract: When the COVID-19 pandemic forced us all into lockdown in March 2020, many astronomy education and outreach organizations modified their programs to go online. We all got creative and discovered new ways to share our love of the cosmos with audiences in their homes. In this session, you will hear from four different groups who ran (and are still running) online initiatives and will learn about their success, struggles, and plans for the future. The activities we created are varied in many ways but were each successful with their respective audiences.
  1. Julie Bolduc-Duval, Director of the educational program Discover the Universe, will tell you about Astro at Home, an 11week marathon of daily astronomy episodes for kids aged between 8–12 yrs, presented in both English and French.
  2. Marie-Eve Naud, Scientific and EPO Coordinator at the Institute for Research on Exoplanets, Montreal, will discuss the Petite école de l'espace (“Little School of Space”), a French online program aimed at 3-6 yrs old.
  3. Michael Reid, Associate Professor, Teaching Stream and Public Outreach Coordinator at the Dunlap Institute, Toronto, will discuss the strategies used to host our online Planet Party, which attracted around 8000 people for this live event.
  4. Guillaume Poulin, Scientific Presenter at the ASTROLab du Mont-Mégantic, will tell you about how they innovated to share the beauty of the night sky to thousands of online viewers from the heart of the first international dark sky reserve.
Short presentations by each panelist will be followed by a discussion, where we will be pleased to interact with the audience to answer questions and hear about their own lessons learned with online programming.
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