AAS-Seattle

The Home Game

want to try a little experiment with everybody who’s reading along at home as I (and others) have our fun at the AAS meeting. Ever since I was in grad school (lo, these many years ago), I’ve been indulging in a little learning project that involves science press releases and news media stories. It all started when I was analyzing more than five years of Hubble Space Telescope-related stories for my graduate thesis (titled Media Treatment of Hubble Space Telescope, published in 1996, University of Colorado). I noticed a distinct disparity between the stories I was reading in the press releases coming from scientists and their institutions and the stories that were actually getting written up in the paper. For HST, at least, it was a disparity that put HST in a bad light for the first year or so after the discovery of spherical aberration in the main mirror. Gradually things changed, which I noted in my thesis. It was gratifying after I graduated to have folks at NASA and the Space Telescope Science Institute ask for my thesis so they could have my viewpoint on the issue.

Anyway, in fall of 1996, I devised a little lesson plan that I have put into effect in workshops and education sessions ever since. In it, I have people look at press releases about astronomy events and discoveries, and then I have them search out the corresponding stories in the media. I have them compare and contrast the “source material” (from the scientists) and the “outcomes” in the press. It’s a great exercise in critical thinking, and along the way it also teaches science. I’ve taught the lessons a number of times in workshops with planetarium folk, students, and teachers in the 11 years (11 years already!!!) since I graduated. There’s a conference proceedings coming out sometime this year from a presentation I gave about the technique, which outlines a full-blown four-week class I taught at Williams College last year, using college students, a planetarium, and some cool projects based on the technique.

In a sign that great minds think alike, I was talking with another blogger last night who told me she was just recently teaching a similar type of lesson with some of her astronomy students, too.

So, here’s the project for you guys reading out here in blogger land: I’m going to list some links of stories released on Sunday, January 7, here at the AAS, and it’s up to you guys to go read them, then search out the corresponding stories in the press to see how the “source” and “outcomes” match (or don’t).

First, there’s a great story on how Hubble and a series of ground-based observatories have participated in a survey of a small region of the sky in the southern hemisphere sky constellation of Sextans.

The image above shows the “cosmic archaeology” that the survey did to uncover dark matter and large-scale baryonic (normal matter) structures stretching back in time to a point about halfway between “now” and the beginning of the universe. Phil Plait has a wonderful discussion about it over on Bad Astronomy Blog. After you’ve read the press release information and Phil’s blog, then check out how the story shows up in the media.

If you’re feeling particularly frisky after that, check out some of these other stories we got press releases about today.

Discovering a Stellar Dynamo, a story that takes a look inside the dynamo powering a nearby star.