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Bio Presentation Sensing the
Radio Sky 		Begin the
Journey 		Paper

Charles Fultz, Susan Buck, Dana Boltuch, Lauren Hund
University of North Carolina at Asheville

Subject Listing - Multimedia
Advisor: Mary Anna LaFratta, Lorraine Walsh

Thursday, Oral Session 1, Presentation 4, Owen Hall 203

SENSING THE RADIO SKY: A PLANETARIUM PRESENTATION AND MULTIMEDIA TEACHING TOOL

The general public's experience with the universe is often limited in space and time due mainly to general education and popular literature. The observable universe beyond the thin slice of the visible spectrum is often overlooked. Strikingly, newspapers, magazines, television, radio and the Internet broadcast daily news about discoveries in astronomy that have been made at radio wavelengths. How can the public relate to these discoveries? Furthermore, how is the public expected to be excited enough about these discoveries to support further research if their understanding is limited to the visible universe? The Sensing the Radio Sky project includes the development of a projection cylinder for STARLAB, a portable planetarium. This projection will immerse the audience in the radio universe to give them a first hand experience with a part of the electromagnetic spectrum they might not otherwise be aware of. The cylinder specifically addresses the structure of the Milky Way and important radio sources within and outside of the Galaxy. To complement the planetarium presentation we designed and developed a series of lesson plans directed toward high school students that introduce and expand on concepts related to radio astronomy. To make these lessons engaging we packaged them as interactive multimedia presentations. These presentations include animations, diagrams and interactive exercises to connect the students to the material in a participatory manner. These multimedia presentations and the realization of the graphics for the projection cylinder served to visualize science through our unique partnership of students and faculty from the Department of Physics as well as the Multimedia Arts and Sciences Program. The project will immediately impact the western North Carolina region where more than 50,000 students and general public will be visited with the portable planetarium in classrooms and open houses. On a broader scale, STARLAB planetariums have been sold in over forty-five countries around the world with an estimated 12 million individuals participating in such planetarium experiences each year.

Co-authors Dana Boltuch and Lauren Hund: Furman University, SC.

Co-Advisors:

Advisor:  Mary Anna LaFratta, M.F.A., Assistant Professor, Department of Multimedia Arts and Sciences and Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, University of North Carolina at Asheville, Asheville, NC

Advisor:  Lorraine Walsh, M.F.A., Assistant Professor and Director of the Multimedia Arts and Sciences Program, Department of Multimedia Arts and Sciences and Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, University of North Carolina at Asheville, Asheville, NC