Stories in Stars: The Schiele Museum of Natural History
About Educational Resource
Using a Star Lab portable planetarium system, Stories in Stars was designed to use both the images of constellations and educator led storytelling to capture the lore and legends of stars through time. Participants were able to create their own constellations on star maps with a view from an exoplanet. Participants then used these original constellations to create a legend or story about the star system, which created a sense of awareness and connection with peoples of ancient history of Earth.
This Program Model was developed and authored by The Schiele Museum of Natural History, with minimal editorial input and review from NASA's Universe of Learning. NASA's Universe of Learning has contributed astrophysics content and subject matter expertise to support the creation of this material.
Other organizations may adapt these materials to meet the needs of their specific audiences. While this Program Model was designed to serve the local audience of the authoring institution, it is shared here as an example for broader use. Users should adjust it as needed and use all or some of the content, as appropriate, for their own needs.
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Goals and Recommendations
Goals
- Increase interest in astronomy concepts
- Develop greater student aptitude in astronomy concepts taught in the traditional school classroom
- Stimulate student interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers
- Expose children to the concept of museums, universities, and NASA resources available for all citizens to explore
Recommendations
This program requires access to a portable planetarium system or an on-site planetarium and should be well suited to be adapted for particular constellation. Presenters will need to have access to constellation imagery. Other organizations that use Star Lab systems or other planetarium setting for their program should use a more hands-on component as part of the program.
The audience for this program was targeted to reach children ages 6 to 12, general audiences within library systems, and summer day camp participants.