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SUMMARY:Sky Wise: Astronomers and the Public - Jarita Holbrook (University
  of Arizona)
DTSTART:20090610T124500Z
DTEND:20090610T131500Z
UID:TALK18137@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Dr Jonathan Gair
DESCRIPTION:ducation and public outreach at NASA and "broader impacts" at 
 the National Science Foundation have become increasingly more important fo
 r securing research funding for astronomy research in the United States. I
 n response\, astronomers have attempted to teach the public about astronom
 y in more systematic\, creative\, and document-able ways. Oftentimes\, the
 ir efforts are presented with survey results showing the immediate positiv
 e impact on their audiences\, however\, long term impact has not been asse
 ssed. This presentation focuses on a multi-year survey project to assess t
 he basic sky knowledge of various populations in the USA and the UK. The g
 oal of the project is to survey as many people as possible across the spec
 trum of age\, education\, ethnicity\, and environment (urban\, rural\, etc
 .) in order to be able to statistically scale up to generalize about the e
 ntire population. Astronomers are included in the research population at f
 irst to serve as a high limit standard\; however\, their characteristics w
 ere surprising enough and complex enough to merit further study. IoA astro
 nomers are included in the results presented and are invited to complete a
  survey for 2009.
LOCATION:Sackler Lecture Theatre\, IoA
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