See the Results

One of the main benefits of the project was to actively engage and excite students beyond the science classroom in the fields of science and technology.

A textbook and televised video can display information and visual media, but the immersive projection system of the Owsley Brown II Planetarium creates a virtual world that involves all the senses. Another benefit for ELLs, derives from a reduction in language barriers to more fully access complex and engaging science concepts through direct, visual science experiences.

In turn, the pre- and post- instructional activities tailored to ELLs’ language proficiency levels and aligned with the planetarium experience served to build student conceptual understandings, to focus students' attention on key science concepts to be presented during visualizations, and to stimulate critical thinking.

These activities, particularly beneficial to low English proficiency ELLs  and interrupted-formal-education ELLs, served to improve students’ vocabulary knowledge, learning strategy use, oral and reading comprehension and allowed for building science background knowledge and science concept elaboration.

 

Students talking about the project’s impact their learning of science

 

Students talking about the project’s impact on their learning of language

 

Students talking about their attitudes toward the portable planetarium

 

Teacher perspective on the impact of the project on his students and his teaching