WWT Ambassadors: WorldWide Telescope for Interactive Learning

In our presentation, we demonstrated some key features of the WorldWide Telescope (WWT). Here we describe the results of a WWT Ambassadors (WWTA) Pilot Study where volunteer Ambassadors helped sixth-graders use WWT during a six-week astronomy unit. The results of the study compare learning outcomes for 80 students who participated in WWTA and 70 students at the same school and grade who only used traditional learning materials. After the six-week unit, twice as many “WWT” as “non-WWT” students understood complex three dimensional orbital relationships; tremendous gains were seen in student performance in science overall, astronomy in particular, and even in using “real” telescopes. We describe plans for expansion of the WWTA program.Astronom