Upcoming PPA events: 

• 2026 Planetarians' Zoom Seminars (PZSs) are usually on the last Friday of the month. They are recorded and archived on the Seminar Archive page. For connection URL, see the Seminar Connection page. See Seminar Schedule page for full descriptions.

• 2026 Sep 22 at 2pm PDT (5pm EDT, 21:00 UTC) PPA Business Meeting

• 2026 Sep 25 at 2pm PDT (5pm EDT, 21:00 UTC) CanoeView: A Tool For Indigenous Education in a Planetarium Classroom with Aarush Bothra (University of Minnesota)  and Sarah Weaver (Como Planetarium). In planetariums, there is a tradition of live narration that intentionally contrasts with pre-recorded movies. Current teaching and learning in planetariums embrace this model, and there is clear interest and potential to do more. To this end, we created CanoeView, a 3D environment designed to support such storytelling in a Dakota context and enable student participation through a real-time group interaction. Currently, students use tablets to navigate a canoe on the Mississippi River. Our session will examine both the technical elements of implementing the digital canoe and the experiential learning benefits and challenges for middle school students in a planetarium. We continue to develop the project with indigenous educators and plan to include student devices that mimic the physical action of canoeing. The goal of the project is to enhance student understanding and enable dynamic uses for educators.  

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