Their YouTube channel has lots of video presentations of interesting market data concerning planetaria!

Enjoy the database here.

And if you ever need an example of a competition to explain science to 11 years olds, then the Flame Challenge is a good one!

Unconventional ways of communicating science — a live talk I am giving in less than 30 minutes and which is broadcasted online from the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore. You’re free to call in and ask questions!

Additionally, I’ve recently learned how LEGO Education is teaching children how to build and giving them a taste for coding their toys to perform all sorts of actions. Check out their smart classes concept here and watch the video below.

(c) OeWF (manfredlang Visuelle Kommunikation)

One of the most powerful visuals I’ve seen for communicating space exploration, Mars exploration in this particular case. An awesome example of how one image can drive an entire awareness campaign.

The visual belongs to The Austrian Space Forum, who is currently running a Mars Analog Field Simulation campaign in Morocco. You can read more about them here.

via NASA and the programme #Penny4NASA, a project meant to stress the importance of advancing the space frontier and to ignite scientific curiosity in the general public.

An excellent pleading example if you need to convince corporations, authorities or other entities to invest in space through the power of inspiration.

Teachers, parents, planetaria people and all those of you aiming to get students and children excited about astronomy, here’s a great opportunity!

NASA invites students worldwide to name an asteroid from which an upcoming mission will return the first samples to Earth.

Scheduled to launch in 2016, the mission is called the Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx). Samples returned from the primitive surface of the near-Earth asteroid currently called (101955) 1999 RQ36 could hold clues to the origin of the solar system and organic molecules that may have seeded life on Earth. NASA also is planning a crewed mission to an asteroid by 2025. A closer scientific study of asteroids will provide context and help inform this mission.

The students of today suggesting the names could well be the scientists of tomorrow analysing the asteroid samples.

The competition is open to students under age 18 from anywhere in the world. Each contestant can submit one name, up to 16 characters long. Entries must include a short explanation and rationale for the name. Submissions must be made by an adult on behalf of the student. The contest deadline is Sunday, Dec. 2, 2012. More details here.

If your students or you yourself are over 18, but you are still interested in the topic, the Space Generation Advisory Council, the international organisation to be in as a young space leader, has a dedicated group in which you can get involved in matters such as planetary defence and projects connected with Near Earth Objects. Read more here.

It’s a nice example of interacting with your community. ESA/Hubble did a similar thing when it replied questions from its community via Hubblecast episode 50, “Q&A with Dr J”.

Using Google+ Hangouts, a group of astronomy enthusiasts have been conducting virtual star parties shared by thousands of people around the world. Their efforts were highlighted in a new documentary presented by Google at their annual developer’s conference, Google I/O, in San Francisco on June 27, 2012.

“We’ve been holding Virtual Star Parties every Sunday night, where we pull together live feeds from multiple telescopes around the world and broadcast them into a live Google+ hangout,” said Fraser Cain, publisher of Universe Today, who instigated the online star parties along with astronomer Dr. Pamela Gay from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville, and CosmoQuest, a new citizen-science and education project. “We’ve done dozens of them now, showcasing the Moon, the planets, and many deep-sky objects. The response has been overwhelming, as we’ve made it possible for people without telescopes or who have cloudy skies a chance to see the night sky from the comfort of their home.”

During one special 6-hour Google+ Virtual Star Party for the Transit of Venus, nearly 7,000 people viewed the group’s online event, which included multiple telescope views and images from around the world.

The Google documentary showcased not only the video chat technology of Google+ Hangouts and Hangouts On Air — which allows an unlimited number of people to participate — but also showed the incredible telescope views that can be shared online and featured several of the amateur astronomers who enjoy sharing a virtual look through their telescopes that this new technology allows.

The documentary is available for viewing online: 

The Virtual Star Parties are held every Sunday night, once it gets dark on the West Coast of North America (about 9 p.m. PDT in the summer — 04:00 UTC). To watch live, just circle +Fraser Cain on Google+, or circle the +Virtual Star Party page.

P.S. Content for this blog post has been taken from a press release received from Universe Today.