Astronomers, teachers and vendors are gathering in Kalamazoo for a conference on planetariums, which starts Wednesday evening at the Kalamazoo Valley Museum.
Workshop and lecture topics include visualizing Mars exploration, diversity and inclusion in astronomy education, what’s new in planetarium shows for children and astronomers’ role in climate change education.
Grant Harkness is with the Iowa-based educational nonprofit The Organization for the Proliferation of Space Studies. He’ll give a talk on using hands-on experiences with meteorites to get students interested in space. Meteorites have educational potential “other than just having a rock on display, whether it be in a private collection or a display meant for the public,” he said.
Hands-on is not a metaphor. Harkness likes to slice up a meteor, then invite his audience to examine the pieces.
“You’re taking it right off of a saw and you’re holding a piece of outer space and you’re looking at it,” he said. “It makes it so much more engaging,” he added, than simply talking about scientific concepts.
Harkness said meteors can also play a role in diplomacy. He said he recently returned from Jordan, where he helped repatriate a piece of a meteorite removed from the country. The trip led to conversations about collaborating on science education, he said.
Harkness said he was looking forward to speaking in-person at the conference, which runs through Saturday.
“We’ll have some specimens on hand and we’ll do some cool stuff,” he said.
