Outreach Lectures
in virtual worlds and Virtual Reality
Sign-up for the lectures on Outschool.com.
Or contact us directly at book@omniscope.org to book a private lecture for your class, learning group, or birthday party.
We believe that at this point of time the virtual worlds can improve multiple aspects of science communication:
Accessibility for students. There are multiple factors that limit accessibility and can be solved by virtual worlds:
geographical — planetariums are sparse and completely inaccessible from rural areas,
financial — reduced logistical costs remove the financial constraints for many disadvantaged schools and communities,
medical — immobile and hospitalized people can access the virtual worlds from anywhere with no physical contact with other people.
Accessibility for scientists. The reduced logistics time and cost allows them to be more involved in outreach activities.
Additional media for science communication. By adapting virtual for science communication we create an additional space for science communicators to reach their audience; thus, it creates new ways to generate income.
Virtual Planetarium show about Hayabusa2 mission
In this experience you share the virtual space with the lecturer and other attendees. The topic is Haybausa2 mission (wikipedia) launched by JAXA in 2018 and scheduled to return later this year. The scope of the show covers the technical side of the mission and about more cultural aspects. Three different locations are used to emerge the visitors into the journey of the spacecraft from Earth to asteroid Ryugu and back to Earth.
AGORA
We recreated a real space from Earth Life Science Institute (ELSI, Tokyo Institute of Technology). We start our lecture from this to get used to the VR.
Urashima
Then, we jump into the fairy tale land and talk about story of Urashima Taro. The asteroid visited by Hayabusa2 spacecraft was named after the underwater palace from this story.
