Traditional Planetarium Programming Versus Participatory Planetarium Programming

Abstract

This study was undertaken to experimentally compare a participatory planetarium program with a traditional lecture-demonstration planetarium program, using the same astronomical concept. The following null hypotheses were developed for this study:
1. There is no difference between the achievement of students who experience a participatory planetarium program and the achievement of students who experience a traditional planetarium program;
2. There is no interaction between the two methods used to present a planetarium program and the time when the students are tested for achievement; and
3. There is no interaction between the two methods used to present a planetarium program and whether the program is presented for the first or second time.
The nonexistence of a standardized astronomy test, which would test the retention of cognitive knowledge presented in the experiment, required that a twenty question multiple choice test be developed to test the selected astronomical concepts taught. Eight of the twenty multiple choice questions were application items with the remainder being rote memory items. A pilot study was conducted to establish the reliability of the test, and a panel of judges consisting of educators and planetarium directors, considered by their peers to be experts in the field of planetarium education, were selected to establish the content validity of the test.