Astronomy Teaching Resources Management System for Curators Using Information Technology

Curators are always searching for the best educational method to exploit new technology in their educational activities. Our research group previously produced teaching materials using 3DCG animation in cooperation with the Nagoya City Science Museum. In this paper, we present a system research and development project that comprehensively supports various kinds of astronomy education by curators who can use information technology based on these activities. As a base system of this project, we built a content management system to support online teaching resources delivery in astronomy education for curators. In astronomy education, the most important thing is seeing real stars outdoors. Therefore curators want to support learning for beginners not only in science museums but also at homes and outdoors. Our system provides teaching materials that can be conducted outdoors and linked to planetarium programs. Curators used the system in practice and evaluated it to clarify its effectiveness.