ED51D-0832
Earth From Space: “Beautiful Earth’s” Integration of Media Arts, Earth Science, and Native Wisdom in Informal Learning Environments

Friday, 18 December 2015
Poster Hall (Moscone South)
Valerie Casasanto, University of Maryland Baltimore County, Baltimore, MD, United States, Ronan Hallowell, New Roads High School, Santa Monica, CA, United States, Kenji Williams, BELLA GAIA/Remedy Arts, New York, NY, United States, James Rock, Indigenous Educational Design, Minneapolis, MN, United States and Thorsten Markus, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States
Abstract:
“Beautiful Earth: Experiencing and Learning Science in an Engaging Way” was a 3-year project funded by NASA's Competitive Opportunities in Education and Public Outreach for Earth and Space Science. An outgrowth of Kenji Williams' BELLA GAIA performance, Beautiful Earth fostered a new approach to teaching by combining live music, data visualizations and Earth science with indigenous perspectives, and hands-on workshops for K-12 students at 5 science centers. Inspired by the “Overview Effect,” described by many astronauts who were awestruck by seeing the Earth from space and their realization of the profound interconnectedness of Earth’s life systems, Beautiful Earth leveraged the power of multimedia performance to serve as a springboard to engage K-12 students in hands-on Earth science and Native wisdom workshops. Results will be presented regarding student perceptions of Earth science, environmental issues, and indigenous ways of knowing from 3 years of evaluation data.
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