Science On a Sphere
Docent Best Practices
Science On a Sphere® is a unique and captivating visualization tool for educators. A recent cross-site evaluation shows that facilitation correlates with learning.
While visitors who saw facilitated and unfacilitated presentations both report learning new information, facilitation correlates strongly with visitors’ perception of learning. Those visitors who saw a facilitated presentation were substantially more likely to state they had learned something new. Facilitation also correlates with specific outcomes, including: increased understanding of time and scale, increased understanding of constant change of the Earth and increased perception of the sacredness of the Earth and need to take care of it.
Across the SOS Collaborative Network there are many different approaches to giving facilitated SOS presentations. In addition, there are even many different names for those who lead facilitated SOS presentations: docents, explainers, interpreters, educators, volunteers, Galaxy Guides, and more. For the purposes of this document, all presenters of facilitated SOS presentations will be referred to as docents.
Thank you to all of the docents who contributed to this document.