Cosmic College: JAXA Informal Space Education Program
- Paper number
IAC-16,E1,IP,36,x33671
- Coauthor
Ms. Tomoko Ohkubo, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Japan
- Year
2016
- Abstract
JAXA has been introducing the effective use of space subjects and materials for primary and secondary education to better utilize the achievements of space development into our space education activities. Along with our efforts in formal education within the education curriculum, we also take effort into informal education where we collaborate with science museums, youth education organizations, etc. to create a space education program package called “Cosmic College.” The unique part about Cosmic College is that it is more than a simple package of space educational materials. It includes teaching plans and guides that will help stimulate children’s interests as well as the standards that we have for the leaders of the program. We provide this package to organizations such as museums and youth education organizations. Cosmic College is a short program that only lasts a few hours, but we make sure that participating children perform some kind of hands-on activity and go through a trial and error process. It is not a program filled with lectures for children, but is something that allows children to actually experiment or construct something. If their experiment or product does not work, they diagnose the problem themselves and find a way to fix it until they succeed. Furthermore, these experiments and products are made so that they could be expound upon at home even after they have completed the program. Our purpose for Cosmic College is to help children gain interest in science from a different perspective and learn how to solve problems on their own. In this paper, JAXA provides specific examples, methods and feedback of this program. We will continue our efforts to improve this program and our space education activities.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)