Following the 2023 and 2024 solar eclipses, Eclipse Soundscapes participants answered a number of survey questions that asked how the experience made them feel. Did the eclipse give them an experience of “awe” or a feeling of connection to something greater than themselves? Did participating in the project improve their feelings of belonging in science?
Researchers at North Carolina State University are using those participant responses to learn more about the emotions that eclipses evoke.
Kelly Lynn Mulvey, an Associate Professor of Psychology at North Carolina State University (NCSU), has spent her career studying how to broaden participation in STEM. Mulvey worked through data from approximately 3,200 Eclipse Soundscapes Apprentices, Observers, and Data Collectors, uncovering some fascinating results.
An increase in science belonging
Overall, participating in the Eclipse Soundscapes project increased feelings of belonging in science. “We saw an increase in belonging from their reports of how they felt before they participated in the role and how they felt after they had participated,” Mulvey said.
This was particularly true for participants who identify as female. “At baseline — before they participated — female identifying participants reported lower belonging than male identifying participants,” Mulvey said. “But after participation, the females basically ‘caught up’ to the males, so there were no significant differences.”
Eclipse percentage and awe
Mulvey also studied how the eclipse impacted feelings of awe in participants. Her work built upon research surrounding the 2017 eclipse and the language used in Twitter (now X) posts. The earlier study indicated that the amount of eclipse coverage was related to increased awe. “People who were posting about the eclipse who were closer to totality used more words related to awe than those who were off the path of totality,” Mulvey said. For the Eclipse Soundscapes project, participants were specifically asked whether the eclipse increased feelings of awe. Again, the percentage of coverage proved important. “Those who experienced the total eclipse reported greater awe than those who experienced the partial eclipse,” Mulvey said.
Changes in animal behavior
Other teams at NCSU, led by Professor of Biological Sciences Adam Hartstone-Rose, are studying observations of animal behavior collected by Eclipse Soundscapes Observers. The teams hope to identify which groups of animals (birds, insects, mammals, etc.) changed or did not change their behavior during the eclipse. If animal groups did change their behavior, the team is trying to identify when, and how long it took them to return to “normal” behavior. “It’s laborious work, there is a lot of coding involved,” Mulvey said, but she expects to have some basic animal behavior findings soon. To learn more about the preliminary work done by Harstone-Rose using 2023 ES Observer data check out “Extraordinary Darkness: A Participatory Approach to Assessing Animal Behavior During Eclipses.“
Implications for future science
Mulvey’s research demonstrates the long-lasting scientific impact of the data from Eclipse Soundscapes participants. Not only does participatory science provide researchers with reliable and authentic data, it benefits the participants as well. “I think the belonging results especially are really important, because it suggests that doing these participatory science projects can help you feel like you fit in more with science,” Mulvey said. “I think it has the potential to really harness folks’ nascent interest in science and launch them into continuing to select either informal science activities, or maybe more formal science work, like pursuing a degree or a job in science. We have a lot of deficits in terms of who is entering STEM fields right now, and a need for more people and more people from diverse backgrounds…to leverage their skills and help us to answer the big scientific questions that are out there.”
When Eclipse Soundscapes Data Collectors submitted the audio data they recorded during the week of the April 8, 2024 eclipse, they had the option to keep or donate their AudioMoth recorder device. Several participants donated their AudioMoths to outlets like their local Library of Things. Others sent their AudioMoths back to Eclipse Soundscapes for us to donate to other science focused projects and community organizations. Eighteen of those AudioMoths have been donated to Dark Sky Missouri, an initiative to protect our night skies and the creatures that depend on them. Eclipse Soundscapes caught up with chapter founder Don Ficken to learn more about how these AudioMoths will contribute to future science.
Don Ficken is a Missouri Master Naturalist and amateur astronomer who launched the Missouri chapter of Dark Sky after patrons in his community library telescope program expressed difficulty seeing the sky. He found the Eclipse Soundscapes Project through SciStarter, an online hub of citizen science projects, and participated in 2024 as a Data Collector. “It opened up a door for me because I never really thought about sound acoustics in this way,” Ficken said.
It occurred to Ficken that acoustics could help bolster Dark Sky Missouri’s efforts to study and conserve night time wildlife. One of these efforts, Lights Out Heartland, encourages homeowners and businesses to minimize artificial light usage in order to protect migrating birds from collisions due to disorienting bright lights. (A 2019 Cornell Lab survey of 125 urban cities found that the St. Louis metro area ranks as the fifth deadliest city for birds during the spring migration and the sixth deadliest for fall).
“That’s kind of a bummer to talk about with people,” Ficken admits. To “bring a positive spin to the project,” Ficken hopes to use the AudioMoths to capture the birds’ nocturnal flight calls as they fly over locations like the Gateway Arch, Shaw Nature Reserve, and Missouri Botanical Gardens. “You would think that migrating birds would go up and just stay there,” Ficken said. “That’s not actually what happens. They drop altitudes, probably because of thermals, maybe because magnetic shifts and things like that. They move up and down. And every time they shift formation, they have to make calls to get themselves reoriented. And this adds a whole new dimension that we can study through acoustics.”
Dark Sky Missouri also hopes to take more general surveys of nature at night, by placing AudioMoths in parks and natural areas. Even though parks are not typically open or staffed at night, the AudioMoths could help map the locations and movements of wildlife, creating talking points and learning opportunities for staff and visitors alike. “The trouble is that unless we reconnect people with the night, unless we get them excited about what’s out there at night, they won’t care about nature,” Ficken said. “If I can show them things like owls and bats and frogs and peepers and insects making noise, if I can show them how alive nature is at night, I think I might make them convert.”
Both initiatives will be piloted during the fall bird migration, with the goal of developing a framework for an expanded long term project. “The idea is we’re going to build this little network of people that know about AudioMoths and how they work,” Ficken said. “I’m drawing on people that already have expertise around birds. They’re really passionate. We’ll probably have a small team of maybe six to eight people doing this so we can just learn together, figure this out.”
While there are no opportunities for the general to get involved in the projects just yet, Ficken said participatory science surrounding birds and light pollution is as abundant as it is important. He cites the Globe at Night project, in which participants helped determine that global light pollution is growing 10 percent each year.
Ficken says participatory scientists can benefit from the multisensory methods employed in the Eclipse Soundscapes Project. “I think that the thing that they should think about is really the door that acoustics would be opening for them,” he said. “In other words, you don’t have to just visually look at daytime. Think about sound. Think about night.”
Check out the recorded webinar when special guest Don Ficken joined Eclipse Soundscapes to talk about how he is using AudioMoths for Nighttime Conservation. Click here to watch the recording.
Non-visual designer Lindsay Yazzolino shares her experience aboard the AstroAccess “AA2” Zero Gravity Flight
Listen to the audio interview or read the full transcript below.
Kelsey Perrett: Hi, I’m Kelsey Perrett with ARISA Lab. Today, I’m speaking with non-visual designer Lindsay Yazzolino. Lindsay is a consultant with ARISA Lab and the Eclipse Soundscapes: Citizen Science Project. She recently returned from a zero-gravity flight with AstroAccess, a project dedicated to promoting disability inclusion in space. Lindsay joined us to discuss what it’s like to experience zero gravity, how the crew’s experiments will impact the future of accessibility in space, and why it’s important to include people with disabilities in the design process from the start. And now, let’s hear from Lindsay.
Lindsay Yazzolino: I’m Lindsay Yazzolino, I am a non-visual designer, I have a background in cognitive neuroscience research, and I’ve always loved science. Growing up, I always knew I wanted to do something related to science, I was always really curious about how things worked. I’m also totally blind and I’ve been blind since birth. I have always, of course, been surrounded by this theme, I guess, of needing science to be non-visually accessible. And I’m just really passionate about, not only science accessibility, but also just making it not just accessible, but also really hands on and interesting and fun for people with disabilities, specifically for for blind people. And making it accessible in a way where someone can just participate, not necessarily because they’re blind, but just to be able to participate in science in really cool and interesting ways that also happen to be hands on.
Kelsey Perrett: Lindsay says she first heard about the opportunity with AstroAccess when she was presenting at the SciAccess conference in 2019.
Lindsay Yazzolino: So I was at this conference, and I met a whole bunch of cool people, among them Anna Voelker and Sheri Wells-Jensen, who were both organizers of this conference. And turns out, they also were both organizers of what would become AstroAccess. AstroAccess of courses is the organization that ran this really cool zero gravity flight that we’re talking about. So yeah, I found out about them through SciAccess and that’s how I knew to apply. I applied the first year that they were doing the first zero gravity flight, which was 2021. They were very clear that they wanted people who were really open about talking about their disabilities, and who are really passionate about creating accessibility in space travel, spaceflight, and all this stuff. So I applied the first year, and it was super competitive, and I didn’t get in. You know, it was really cool that there was so many qualified people that it would be this competitive. So then the next year, I applied again, and I got in. I was really excited, because I mean, zero gravity flight. I was just super curious, you know, what it would feel like to experience zero gravity. And of course, I believed in what the organization is doing. And, of course, I wanted to use my skills and my experience, and, whatever I can bring to help increase accessibility in space in spaceflight. So it was a combination of like, I want to help science and wow, I get to be in an airplane and fly around in zero gravity, because I love airplanes and I love like thrill seeking experiences. And so it was just like, a whole combination of of coolness. And a lot of people have tried to explain, people get asked, what does it feel like to be in zero gravity? And everyone’s like, it’s really hard to explain. So one of my sort of goals when I was doing this was to try and be able to explain it as best as I could. And specifically, of course, me being totally blind, I was experiencing it totally non-visually. And I remember the first that initial feeling of the floor just kind of disappearing, and being like, Oh crap, there’s no floor. Because my instinct was to find the floor, because you know when you’re on Earth, and you’re tossed up in the air, you know that you’re going to end up having to fall back down onto the floor. And usually that’s not a very comfortable thing to happen. But of course, I knew it was zero gravity. But still I felt that need to sort of test what it feels like to be in this place where the laws of gravity are different. So in a way, I sort of felt like a baby. That’s the best I can explain is like, because it was this whole kind of relearning what happens when you move in this new environment. But after a few parabolas, I was just like, Okay, this is really fun. And that that point I was, well, I had to do my my actual science experiments. But like, let’s face it, the really fun part, was being in zero gravity. Actually, what I realized, the best way to describe it for me, is in some ways, it felt like instead of me moving within the plane, it felt like the plane was moving around me. And it would sort of feel like being on a hamster wheel where like, whatever you were on was sort of under you, like you’re actually propelling it under you, as opposed to feeling like I was, you know, upside down on the ceiling or sideways. So it was a really interesting sensation and nothing like anything I’ve experienced before.
Kelsey Perrett: While on board, the AstroAccess crew conducted a variety of scientific experiments which were intended to advance Universal Design in space travel.
Lindsay Yazzolino: You know, I mean, it’s really cool to go into zero gravity, but of course, we were also doing experiments. And the idea of these experiments was to increase our knowledge of how we can make spaceflight accessible, how we can actually design, on a practical level, how we can design spacecraft and space stations and all these things to be accessible. So there was a group of us who were blind or low vision on the flight. And we worked on a project where we developed a set of tactile graphics to help people orient non-visually while they’re in zero gravity. A few of us actually went to New York a few times to visit the New York Public Library where there’s a whole accessibility program led by Chancey Fleet, and there’s a whole bunch of everything to make tactile graphics. So we had tactile graphics and embossers, we got the help of a couple people who are really expert designers. So they got to help us actually sketch out the graphics. We had all these tactile drawing boards. It was like a few blind people with tactile drawing tools, just collaborating, you know, brainstorming and coming up with ideas, just iterating on these designs, and coming up with the best designs that we could think of. So the most important thing we wanted to make sure people knew was which way is down, because if you think about it, you’re in zero gravity, you don’t know which way you’re facing, it’s really easy to get disoriented. And the idea is that you could reach out and touch any surface, whether it be walls or floor ceiling, and be able to feel which way is down. And then also, we had symbols to show which direction different emergency equipment was and also how far that equipment was, and whether it was on your same wall or across from you on the opposite wall. So this is a totally new system that we developed. And we wanted to do some initial testing to see how quickly and accurately people can read them while in zero gravity. So we set up a few of us with a whole set of test graphics where you had to read them. And during each parabola, you had to call out — we recorded people’s observations about what they thought they showed.
Kelsey Perrett: I asked Lindsay what was it like to work on a team that was intentionally inclusive of people with disabilities, and whether this experience changed the way she thought about herself or her career as a scientist.
Lindsay Yazzolino: I mean, it’s always nice when you work with a group of people where you don’t have to deal with people being really paternalistic, or being way too hovering, you know, hovering over you, or thinking people —blind people, people with other disabilities — can’t, you know, handle themselves or do certain things or need to be led by people without disabilities. Of course, I think you and I both know that that’s a huge problem when that does happen. I mean, on a functional level, it just meant we could get more done. We could actually design some of the experiments that we wanted to do, that we could test the things we wanted to test, and that we could experience zero gravity in a way where we weren’t being restricted unnecessarily. Because that is always a thing, you know, to think about. I know, the word empowering is overused, we use that word a lot. But it was in the sense that, you know, we are the researchers, right, like, we’re the scientists, we’re the researchers. And so it felt like, honestly, it just feels the way it should, you know, to be in a group where inclusion and participation is expected. Yeah, it just feels like the way it should be. It’s definitely shifted how I feel about the proximity of myself to space travel. Before, it always felt like the idea of going into space was one of those things that, like you said, everyone kind of dreams about at some point. But it didn’t feel like a reality exactly. It kind of felt like, oh, this is a thing that other people do. And not even just because of being blind, but just because it’s just the thing that other people did. Very few people get to do it. So I feel like now I do feel closer to that reality. I feel like, especially now that there’s a lot more commercial space travel happening, you know, the idea of me thinking of myself going into space feels a lot more conceivable than it did before. And of course, making it accessible is a big part of that. We’re just making what we can do our part to do is to prevent designers from, whether intentionally or not, just creating bad designs that don’t need to happen and unnecessarily excluding people from going to space. I do think that, you know, we have to see this as an ongoing thing. Like yes, we did this flight. Yes, it was awesome. But now there’s just a lot more work to be done. There’s a lot more science to be done. But it’s like, I feel like we’ve barely scratched the surface when it comes to starting to explore possible, you know, accessible features and inclusion in space travel, all this stuff. So this is like just the beginning. And I’m really looking forward to seeing how things progress and to being part of contributing to that. And I think that like we just need that we need everybody who can be part of, you know, who who can contribute their expertise and their knowledge, and their belief in us as people, you know, who can eventually go to space.
A history of lessons learned and questions still to be answered
Solar eclipses are more than an exciting cosmic phenomenon, they have played a key role in helping humans understand the universe. By observing eclipses, scientists learned about the size and shape of the Sun, the Moon, and the Earth. Eclipses clued-in early astronomers to the orbits of the celestial bodies and how they relate to one another. Copernicus’ theory of heliocentrism cemented the understanding that solar eclipses occur when the Moon passes in front of the Sun. And just like that, public perception of eclipses shifted from a frightful darkening of the skies to an opportunity to learn more about the cosmos.
Studying the Corona
One of the first great modern discoveries surrounding an eclipse occurred in 1868. French solar physicist Jules Janssen discovered a new element while observing the Sun’s chromosphere through a prism. Astronomers named the element Helium, after Helios, the Greek god of the Sun. It would be more than 25 years before helium was discovered on Earth, but we now know it’s the second most common element in the universe.
Janssen was neither the first scientist nor the last to study the outer atmosphere of the Sun during an eclipse. A solar eclipse offers a unique chance for scientists to view the Sun’s corona. “Most of what we know about the corona is deeply rooted in the history of total solar eclipses,” Lina Tran wrote for NASA Goddard. “Before sophisticated instruments and spacecraft, the only way to study the corona from Earth was during a total eclipse, when the Moon blocks the Sun’s bright face, revealing the surrounding, dimmer corona.” An instrument called a coronagraph can mimic eclipse conditions on a telescope, but eclipses still remain the most authentic way to study the corona from Earth.
The Coronal Heating Problem
Scientists thought they discovered yet another new element in 1869 as they observed an eclipse through a spectrometer. A spectrometer helps scientists determine which elements compose a band of light, but the green line that appeared in 1869 didn’t correspond to any known element. Scientists briefly called the new “element” Coronium, but Swedish astronomer Bengt Edlén later determined that the element was superheated iron.
The extreme temperature of the iron indicates that the corona is 2 million degrees Fahrenheit — nearly 200 times hotter than the surface of the Sun. This phenomenon is known as the “Coronal Heating Problem.” The layers of the sun typically become cooler and less dense as they move outward from the core, so scientists are not sure why the corona would be significantly hotter than the surface below it. Heliophysicists believe this may be caused by wave heating, or perhaps nanoflares, but further study of the corona is necessary before we know for certain.
Solar Winds
The corona is full of other fascinating features. Eclipses give astrophysicists a good look at the behavior of loops, streamers, and coronal mass ejections. They are also an opportunity to learn about solar winds: charged particles that emanate from the corona. Solar winds are important in that they define the boundary of our solar system and protect us from cosmic radiation. On the downside, they can disrupt our satellite and GPS-based communications. During an eclipse, researchers can take more accurate temperature readings of solar winds. Interestingly enough, solar wind temperatures do not seem to fluctuate in tandem with the solar cycle. It’s another mystery that may require more solar eclipses to solve.
The Earth’s Ionosphere
Eclipses don’t just tell us about the Sun. We can also learn more about our own atmosphere here on Earth. The ionosphere is the upper level of the Earth’s atmosphere. During the daytime, the ionosphere is “charged” because “energy from the sun and its corona feed extreme ultraviolet photons into this area, creating free electrons and ions,” physicist Phillip Erickson told Slate. The ionosphere is less active at night. An eclipse is like a light switch for the ionosphere, turning the charge off and back on again as the Moon passes in front of the Sun. This allows scientists to study changes in real-time, and can provide clues about how the ionosphere affects communications and space weather.
Studying Other Structures
Eclipses also offer insight into other structures in the solar system. Some scientists have used the occasion of an eclipse to take more accurate thermal readings of Mercury. Others have embraced eclipses as a model that makes our stratosphere more “Mars-like.” During an eclipse, UVA and UVB levels in our upper atmosphere more closely resemble those on Mars, allowing researchers to test microbial responses to Mars-like conditions.
An eclipse also led to one of the most important “proofs” in modern science — a test of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. Einstein’s theory posited that light shifts as it passes by a massive body (like the Sun). In 1919, researchers noted that the light from stars shifted before, during, and after a total solar eclipse. It appeared that Einstein guy was right all along.
Studying Life on Earth
These days, instruments like the Parker Solar Probe are teaching us about the Sun (and other structures) in ways we never imagined. But that doesn’t mean the days of learning from eclipses are through. Eclipses present a unique opportunity to learn about changes in our solar system. And some of those changes occur right here on Earth.
During the Eclipse Soundscapes: Citizen Science Project, we’ll be studying how life on Earth responds to those changes. Anecdotal evidence suggests that we could experience altered animal behaviors and sounds (for example, nocturnal animals calling during the eclipse, or diurnal animals producing a “false dawn chorus” as the light re-emerges). We’ll be taking soundscape recordings before, during, and after the eclipse. Then, we’ll analyze the recordings for any patterns or anomalies. Interested in joining us? Sign up here to be a part of the project!
What can we learn by keeping our ear to the cosmos?
Anyone who remembers the iconic Ridley Scott film “Alien” (who could forget?) may recall the tagline “in space, no one can hear you scream.” And while sci-fi films are frequent fodder for scientific debate, this assertion is widely acknowledged as true. Because there is no air in space, there is nothing to conduct the sound waves, and therefore no vibrations that are perceptible to the human ear. But that’s not to say it’s impossible to hear the sounds of space. With a little creativity and a lot of scientific ingenuity, astrophysicists have developed fascinating ways for us to listen to the cosmos.
In most cases, the listening process only requires a little bit of translation. Mechanical sound waves might not be able to travel through space, but electromagnetic waves can. Scientists use instruments to collect radio waves, microwaves, infrared rays, optical rays, ultraviolet rays, X-rays, and gamma-rays, then convert them into audible sound waves through a process known as sonification.
NASA researchers were considering the possibilities of sound in space as early as 1977, when the Voyager probes were launched. In the event that the interstellar probes encounter intelligent extraterrestrial life, NASA placed a “Golden Record” aboard the spacecraft that bears the auditory marks of life on earth: ocean waves, bird song, greetings in 55 languages, and even a playlist of multicultural music through the ages. But scientists were also thinking about what sounds the Voyagers could receive when they installed a Plasma Wave Subsystem onboard each probe.
In 2012, Voyager 1 crossed the boundary of the heliosphere. Not long after, it sent back an amazing piece of data: the vibrations of dense plasma, or ionized gas, rumbling in interstellar space. These eerie whistles are helping scientists learn about the density in this strange space beyond our solar system.
Plasma is frequently used as a medium for scientists to detect space sounds. Just as sound waves can move grains of sand on a plate, similar waves can cause the plasma in the Sun to rise and fall. This is how scientists learned that the Sun itself rings like a bell. Telescopes like the HMI and MDI observed movements in solar plasma, and the team at Stanford’s Solar Center created the Sonification of Solar Harmonics or SoSH Project to convert these observed solar vibrations into audible sounds.
Plasma wave instruments were also placed on NASA’s planetary explorers, like the Cassini probe to Saturn and the Juno probe to Jupiter. Cassini’s Radio and Plasma Wave Science Instrument has picked up a number of fascinating signals, including radio emissions from Saturn and its moons and an impressive lightning storm. Cassini also carried a microphone aboard the Huygens probe which recorded sound as it descended to the Saturnian moon of Titan.
The Juno probe captured data as it descended into Jupiter’s magnetosphere, the largest structure in our solar system. It picked up a series of electromagnetic waves trapped in a cavity within Jupiter’s magnetic field. A couple of months later, the instrument received radio signals from the planet’s notoriously intense auroras.
Not all sounds captured in space are a result of electromagnetic waves. Direct impacts can cause mechanical vibrations that are audible to the human ear. For instance, when Stardust-NExT encountered the comet Tempel 1 in 2011, its Dust Flux Monitor recorded the vibrations of dust particles pelting the craft.
In 2019, the InSight lander placed a highly sensitive seismometer on Mars which has collected the sounds of quakes and Martian winds. Inspired by the seismoter’s success, NASA opted to send a set of microphones onboard the Perseverance rover, which landed on the red planet in February of 2021. The Entry Descent and Landing mic recorded Percy’s successful landing, while the SuperCam mic sends back the mechanical sounds from the rover and the rocks and minerals it studies.
Other space sounds are sonifications from data about light. This has allowed NASA to glean sounds with some of its most impressive telescopes, including the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, the Hubble Space Telescope, and the Spitzer Space Telescope. These telescopes create images by capturing x-ray, infrared, and optical light. Sonification converts that data into audio in which the pitch and volume reflect the concentration and intensity of the light. As a result, we’re able to hear celestial objects like supernovas, nebulas, and even black holes. (In case you’re wondering, black holes sing in the key of B-flat).
But why go through all this trouble to recreate the sounds of space? The answers are simultaneously complex and very simple. In the case of plasma wave instruments, scientists can learn a great deal about the interactions and dynamics between objects in our solar system. The “sounds” that come from these studies are just a fun after-effect. And science should be fun. Musical composers, video game designers, and other multi-media artists have latched onto these space sounds for all sorts of creative endeavors. Who’s to say complex scientific data shouldn’t be accessible to the masses?
Accessibility is another important piece of the puzzle. Tools like sonification broaden the field of astrophysics so it can be studied and enjoyed by people who are blind or low vision. But it also presents data in a multi-sensory form that makes learning more accessible for everyone.
Listening with Eclipse Soundscapes
For more fun and accessible space science, download the Eclipse Soundscapes Mobile Application, which allows you to hear (and feel) a total solar eclipse. You can also sign up to join our upcoming Eclipse Soundscapes: Citizen Science Project, where we’ll be studying how eclipses impact the soundscapes here on planet Earth. It’s just another way to keep our ears open and learn about our universe!
The first thing to understand about auditory learning is that it is wrapped in a cloak of myth.
In the early ‘90s, the idea of different “learning styles” was popularized by the VARK questionnaire. The movement suggested that all humans fall into one of five categories: visual learners, auditory learners, reading/writing learners, or kinesthetic learners. The trend took off. Not only did pedagogues add more categories to the list, but learners began identifying with certain styles, and educators began teaching to specific styles. It wasn’t until the last decade or so that the concept of “learning styles” was debunked.
While the research does not support different “learning styles,” it’s obvious that learners do have different preferences and abilities. And if learners have a disability with which they physically or cognitively cannot learn through a particular method, it’s important to consider alternate modalities.
So, even if there’s no such thing as “auditory learners,” auditory learning remains an important tool in any educator’s toolbox.
Hearing is a powerful sense that can enrich our learning in myriad ways. Because ARISA Lab’s group of Eclipse Soundscapes projects will use auditory techniques to help participants learn about eclipses, in this blog we’ll explore how we hear, the fascinating link between hearing and memory, and the benefits of incorporating sound into education.
What happens when we hear a sound?
Receiving Sound
When sound waves enter our ears, they travel through the ear canal to vibrate our eardrums. The bones in our middle ear amplify these vibrations, causing fluid inside our cochlea to ripple. This in turn stimulates tiny hair cells in our inner ears. These hairs convert the sound waves into an electrical signal, and send those signals to the auditory nerve. The auditory nerve passes through the auditory cortex of our brain, located in the temporal lobe. Our brain then interprets those signals.
This video from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders gives a great overview.
Perceiving Sound
Most brains are adept at interpreting sounds, especially when it comes to human speech. They’re also great at filtering out background noise — sounds we do not need to process in the moment.
How the brain perceives and interprets heard sounds takes place at a number of levels.
Some perception is reflexive (like a loud sound that causes us to jump)
Some perception happens in the auditory cortex
Some perception happens in other areas of the brain
One part of the brain may recognize a memorized sound, like your mother’s laugh.
Another part of the brain may prepare a voluntary response to a question.
Yet another part of your brain might have an emotional reaction to the content of the sound.
This video from S. Blatrix and R. Puhol, shows the journey of sound through the auditory pathway.
All of this depends on our level of alertness. If we are asleep, our ears still work. Sound may cause reflexive movement, but the other parts of the brain involved in perceiving sound remain inactive.
How do we learn and remember through sound?
Hearing and Remembering
To understand learning through sound, it’s important to consider the unique link between hearing and memory. As Krause and White-Schwoch suggest in Unraveling the Biology of Auditory Learning: A Cognitive-Sensorimotor-Reward Framework, “the precision of automatic sound processing in the brain is linked to cognitive skills such as attention and working memory.”
Humans have a good ability to hold a large amount of auditory information for about 3-4 seconds. For this time we can “replay” the sound in our mind. This is known as “echoic memory.” Repetition, or repeated exposure to a set of sounds, can help us encode information in our long term memory, where it can be retrieved later. Attention is also at play here: while our working memory processes sounds, our ears are still paying attention to all the new sounds coming in.
Some research suggests that listening is exceptionally good exercise for the brain. Older adults experience rapid cognitive decline when they are not able to hear well. Per contra, studies show that music training may improve memory and linguistic expression. Music reaches parts of our brain that are responsible for attention, emotion, and procedural memory. Patients with Alzheimers can often remember music from their past, and music therapy may activate their brains and improve communication. Such evidence suggests a strong music-memory connection. This connection is the reason why you still remember the words to your high school favorite song (or that terrible chewing gum jingle) years after you last heard it. If remembering is one key to successful learning, is it possible that auditory modalities like music help us learn better?
A Case for Multi-Sensory Learning
The science on the specific benefits of auditory learning has not yet broken free of the confines of “learning styles.” There’s no reason to believe that auditory learning, on its own, is more or less effective than any other sensory form. Instead of focusing solely on auditory learning, educators should consider a multi-sensory approach.
The human brain is uniquely evolved to thrive in a multi-sensory environment. We are designed to process our world through sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste. One popular paper on the “Benefits of Multi-Sensory Learning” stated that “multi-sensory training protocols can better approximate natural settings and are more effective for learning.” The hope is that by engaging different areas of the brain, multi-sensory learning could help improve neural connectivity.
As ARISA Lab Education Director MaryKay Severino put it, the shift from “learning styles” to multimodal learning won’t necessarily change how educators plan activities. Instead of using multi-sensory activities to benefit individual styles, the aim is to use multi-sensory activities to benefit every learner. The change, Severino said, “is how we explain learning to learners themselves. If a learner understands that learning with as many senses as possible will support their understanding, there could be more engagement.”
If learners are engaged and educators are encouraging understanding, the brain will take care of the rest.
Have you ever dreamed of becoming a scientist, but found yourself on another life path? Are there young people in your life who are curious about STEAM? Do you want to make a contribution towards bettering the world, but you’re not quite sure where to begin? If so, citizen science might be the best tool for you to expand your knowledge base while engaging in relevant modern research.
Citizen science is a practice in which members of the public voluntarily participate in the scientific process to address real world questions and concerns.
There are many definitions of citizen science, and even more types of projects, but all of them share commonalities. According the citizen science website SciStarter, four common features of citizen science are:
anyone is eligible to participate
participants use the same protocol so data can be combined and be high quality
data can help real scientists come to real conclusions
a wide community of scientists and volunteers work together and share data to which the public, as well as scientists, have access
There are a few more similarities between citizen science projects. Often, these projects utilize crowdsourcing, and embrace the potential for public education and citizen agency.
Crowdsourcing
Citizen science relies on non-professional scientists (citizens) to contribute to the project or research. This is sometimes known as “crowdsourcing.” SciStarter points out that public involvement typically features data collection, analysis, or reporting. Participants may record notes about local wildlife, use test kits to monitor water quality, or measure light pollution with their smartphone. Lead scientists and subject matter experts often design the project and provide insight into findings, but the role of the citizen scientist is invaluable. Widespread volunteerism allows scientists to collect a broad scope of data that they otherwise would not have the funding or people-power to compile.
Public Education
Critics of citizen science have questioned whether this use of unpaid citizen labor is exploitative, but the ultimate goal of most citizen science projects is to involve the public in research that is both fun and educational. Citizen science provides participants with a chance to learn about the scientific process, and implement it, in both formal and informal education environments. A 2018 study from the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine on “Learning Through Citizen Science” found that: “With careful planning, intentional design, and learning supports, citizen science can:
amplify participants’ identities as individuals who contribute to science and support their self-efficacy in science
provide an opportunity for participants to learn about data, data analysis, and interpretation of data, and
provide a venue for participants to learn about the nature of science and scientific reasoning.”
These learning opportunities are not only valuable for participants. A focus on public education can help ensure that citizen science projects come away with unbiased and accurate data. The “Learning Through Citizen Science” study also found that “helping participants develop and practice the skills associated with data collection improved the quality of data collected, which is good both for science and the communities who base subsequent action on that data.”
Citizen Agency
This brings us to another facet of citizen science: that citizen science projects can and should instill a sense of agency in citizen participants. Projects may be local or global in nature, but most will focus on topics that citizens care about, whether it’s a worldwide issue like climate change or a regional concern like air quality in their neighborhood. Participating in the science surrounding these matters is a way for citizens to take action. This is particularly effective if the data can influence policy making that directly affects the citizen and their environment.
No large-scale study has been conducted to prove the importance of citizen agency, but many studies have agreed that this is one potential benefit. A 2020 study of a citizen science program on malaria control suggested: “A [citizen science project] has potential not only as a means of collecting a large amount of citizen science data, but also equally important, as a means of engaging citizens in decision-making and solving environmental and public health problems.”
Where and How to Find Citizen Science Projects
If you’re interested in participating in a citizen science project, there are plenty of resources to help you get started. You can use a search tool like SciStarter or CitizenScience.gov to find a project happening online or near you. Both of these search tools allow you to filter projects to find one that suits your interests.
The Eclipse Soundscapes Citizen Science Project
The Eclipse Soundscapes Citizen Science Project will call on citizen scientists to collect audio recordings of soundscapes before, during, and after total solar eclipses. These recordings may help us better understand how astronomical events affect life here on Earth. Citizen scientists will be called to participate in 2023. To stay up to date with project details, join our mailing list.
Informal learning has experienced somewhat of a renaissance in the United States since the emergence of the COVID-19 virus. Libraries, aquariums, museums, and other institutions have pivoted to virtual programming as a resource for children and adults to augment their education. Still, for most of the general public, informal learning is little more than a buzzword. So what is informal learning exactly? One key is location. Informal learning is any learning that takes place outside of traditional environments like classrooms.
We are constantly engaged with informal learning
Have you ever heard the phrase “you learn something new every day?” That’s true for most of us, even if we don’t set out to study a new topic or attend a lecture series. Maybe you Googled how to change the oil in your car, or your friend gave you some tips to improve your basketball game — that’s informal learning!
Informal learning can be the same, or similar, to non-formal learning
There is some debate about the differences between non-formal learning and informal learning. In some circles, the division is quite strict. These groups hold that non-formal learning takes place outside of schools, has some organizational framework, and is often instructor-led. Informal learning, on the other hand, is involuntary — participants do not make a conscious decision to learn and there is no organizational structure offered to them.
Not everyone is as stringent about this distinction. Often, the terms are used interchangeably.
Educational researcher Stephen Richard Billett put it this way: “workplaces and educational institutions merely represent different instances of social practices in which learning occurs through participation.” Even though our social and cultural structures may be invisible to us, they do follow formalized procedures.
It’s important not to get too hung up on the distinctions. The category of learning is far less important than ensuring that the learning is effective.
Informal learning in STEM is sometimes known as informal science education
In the science community, informal learning is often referred to as “informal science education.” According to The Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education (CAISE), “When we talk about the field of informal science, or STEM, education, we are referring to experiences and settings that are being designed, implemented and assessed by a community of dedicated, trained practitioners.”
To be clear, informal science education may or may not be led by an instructor or subject matter expert (SME). It’s not uncommon for a professional to help guide or curate the content. For instance, an instructor may facilitate an after-school program, or a SME may host a citizen science event. However, in an informal learning scenario like a self-guided museum visit, direct SME interaction is not an integral part of the experience. Likewise, a SME may be interviewed for a public television documentary, but they do not necessarily guide or assess any learning that may take place when someone watches the program.
The setting and degree of instructor involvement may vary, but studies suggest that informal science education could play a crucial role in the future of science.
Informal learning has many benefits
So why is informal learning so important? It provides more venues and modalities for education, which is always a good thing if you ask us! For children, it’s an opportunity to reinforce or add to school learning. For adults, informal learning is a chance for continuing education.
Evidence shows that informal science education helps learners to identify “as someone who knows about, uses, and sometimes contributes to science.” We call this positive science identity, and it’s important for long-term engagement with STEM. Positive science identity is enhanced when learners “encounter and make use of the ideas, images, communities, resources, and pathways that can lead to progressively greater involvement in the practices of science.”
Because informal education is much broader in terms of content and desired outcomes, it is not as rigidly defined or implemented as formal education. This can allow for greater flexibility. Participants are able to guide their own learning and discover knowledge as they go. This is particularly important for adult learners, who prefer to have greater control and self-direction.
Younger learners may also enjoy this style of experiential learning, especially when it caters to their interests. While an extracurricular science club or nature outing won’t be everyone’s cup of tea, these events can bolster the skills and science identity of already enthusiastic learners. They may also provide learners who have negative associations with school with a more positive environment in which to learn.
Many informal science programs are easy-access and available on-the-go through public resources like libraries and museums. Often, these informal learning opportunities are free, provided attendees have a reliable internet connection.
Informal learning can and should be accessible
There is one pitfall to informal science education, and that is a lack of research on best practices for the inclusion of people with disabilities. According to a 2010 study by the Center for Advancement of Informal Science Education, the non-uniform standards of informal science “can pose [a] significant barrier to inclusion.”
The study suggests that “the lack of systemic and accepted professional standards for approaching the inclusion of all individuals—especially those with disabilities—presents the greatest challenge for making inclusion a routine and commonplace practice in the field of informal science education.”
ARISA Lab is committed to shifting the paradigm towards more inclusion in informal science education. Through innovative and inclusive citizen science projects like Eclipse Soundscapes, we are developing best practices to ensure that all learners can contribute to science as equals. For more information on how to make informal learning accessible, follow ARISA Lab on social media.
In July, NASA bolstered its commitment to diversity in science by adding “inclusion” to its list of core values. (The pre-existing values are teamwork, safety, excellence, and integrity). In the announcement, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said: “Incorporating inclusion as a NASA core value is an important step to ensuring this principle remains a long-term focus for our agency and becomes ingrained in the NASA family DNA.”
NASA has spent the last decade reforming its image to be a model for equal opportunity, diversity, and inclusion, both in the federal government and in the nation as a whole. Some recent endeavors that align with these goals include translating key NASA documents into a variety of languages, and renaming cosmic objects (like nebulae) whose nicknames hold racist and ableist connotations. “Science is for everyone, and every facet of our work needs to reflect that value,” Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, told NASA’s news service.
The Science Mission Directorate is prepared to put its money where its mouth is when it comes to grant funding. One of NASA’s competitive, highly sought-after grants comes from the Science Mission Directorate’s Science Activation Program, also known as SciAct. SciAct grants connect NASA science experts with communities to “do science in ways that activate minds and promote deeper understanding of our world and beyond.” SciAct is especially interested in projects that broaden participation of under-represented and under-served learners in order to maximize engagement and advancement of STEAM knowledge.
…Which leads us to our big announcement!
Announcing the Eclipse Soundscapes Citizen Science Project
The Eclipse Soundscapes: Citizen Science Project (ES:CSP), an enterprise of ARISA LAB, is honored to be chosen as one of 27 recipients of a five year SciAct Grant, set to begin in 2021. ES:CSP will be supported by NASA under award No. 80NSSC21M0008.
Eclipse Soundscapes originally launched to make the “Great American Eclipse” of 2017 accessible to everyone, with a special focus on users who are blind or low vision. Its cornerstone project was a mobile application, available for iOS and Android devices. The app includes real-time illustrative audio descriptions of eclipses, as well as an interactive “rumble map” that allows users to conceptualize an eclipse through touch and sound. The 2017 project was funded by the NASA Space Science Education Consortium.
“The Eclipse Soundscapes Project began three years ago with the intention of making the 2017 total solar eclipse exciting and engaging for everyone, including people who are blind or low vision,” said Dr. Henry Winter, who co-founded ARISA Lab alongside MaryKay Severino. “We are excited to work with NASA and our partners to build the necessary tools to allow everyone to perform real and meaningful scientific research as equal participants.”
Eclipse Soundscapes’ new project will introduce accessible opportunities for citizen scientists to participate in eclipse research. With the help of citizen scientists, NASA subject matter experts (SMEs) will collect audio recordings from eclipses and analyze acoustic data to determine how disruptions in light and circadian rhythms may affect ecosystems. The data will include soundscapes recorded by the National Park Service and Brigham Young University during the 2017 total solar eclipse, as well as recordings to be taken during the 2023 annular eclipse and 2024 total solar eclipse.
These recordings will be central to ARISA’s informal learning initiative, which is focused on fostering self-efficacy in under-represented learners. Under the guidance of NASA SMEs, citizen scientists will participate in 20-week workshops surrounding each eclipse. They will undergo training, collect and analyze eclipse acoustic data, and earn virtual badges upon completing the program. All workshops, materials, and learning interfaces will be designed to the highest degree of accessibility, with a focus on physical, social, and cognitive inclusion.
Partnerships
The mission to make science accessible to everyone will be supported through a number of partnerships.
“This project provides a wonderful, accessible opportunity for people to engage across scales, from lunar movements down to the smallest sounds of earth,” Dr. Laurel Symes said.
Dr. Jacob Job addressed the importance of the project to conservation. “ES:CSP makes the natural world accessible to more people, which is essential to recruiting more advocates for the conservation of the natural world, and our future,” he said.
“As a totally blind researcher and lifelong STEM enthusiast, I’m a huge fan of citizen science,” Lindsay Yazzolino said. “However, I’ve discovered that many existing citizen science projects rely on visual methods for data collection and analysis, and therefore exclude so many blind individuals who would otherwise love to participate. I’m thrilled to work with the rest of the Eclipse Soundscapes team to create opportunities for blind citizen scientists to engage in exciting, impactful, and completely accessible hands-on science projects while contributing valuable scientific knowledge in the process.”
Mark A. Riccobono, President of the National Federation of the Blind, said: “By participating in this project, we are helping to develop innovative nonvisual tools for blind people to explore a dramatically visual experience through sound and to create opportunities for blind citizen scientists to learn and contribute to the body of knowledge we gather about our universe.”
“It’s important that students get hands-on experience,” Regine Gilbert said. “My students will have the opportunity to use their design skills to create an accessible and inclusive
interface as part of the ES:CSP.”
“When we worked with the ARISA Lab team on the development of Eclipse Soundscapes for the 2017 eclipse, we knew the work couldn’t stop there” C. Alex Young, NSSEC Principal Investigator said. “By incorporating accessible citizen science and NASA SMEs into the project, this new phase of the program brings their work to the next level of inclusivity and impact.”
The Eclipse Soundscapes Citizen Science Project is excited to join NASA in their ongoing mission to make science and space accessible for all. Stay tuned for more exciting developments in 2021.
Disclaimer: Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
Have you ever listened to an album of relaxing nature sounds, like rains falling or whales singing? That’s a soundscape! Soundscapes include any noises that humans hear in a given environment.
There are three major types of sound that can be found in soundscapes:
Biophony: Sounds generated by organisms (like bird song and cricket chirps)
Geophony: Sounds generated by the non-biological natural world (like wind and water noise)
Anthropophony: Sounds generated by humans or human-made technology (like human voices or vehicle traffic).
The study of soundscapes encompasses several disciplines, including acoustic ecology, bioacoustics, and soundscape ecology. The Eclipse Soundscapes Project focuses primarily on soundscape ecology.
What can we learn from soundscapes?
Soundscape ecology is an emerging field (established in 2011 by the article “Soundscape Ecology: The Science of Sound in the Landscape”). Scientists are still learning about the many ways it can be useful. The purpose of soundscape ecology is to explore the relationships between living organisms (including humans) and their environment. Soundscape ecologists use recording devices to collect soundscapes, then analyze the results using a spectogram: a visual representation of how sound frequencies vary over time.
Soundscapes themselves are valuable to conservation. There is a push to preserve soundscapes in delicate ecosystems, since changes in climate or excessive human impact may cause soundscapes to alter or disappear. Some agencies, like the U.S. National Park Service’s Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division, are working to protect soundscapes by collecting recordings and preserving acoustic environments.
The analysis of soundscapes can also be beneficial to science. Acoustic data tells us about the environment, its health, and how different species behave and interact within it. We can make simple observations about which life forms are present in a habitat, and when they are most active or vocal.
We can also form hypotheses that explain why animals behave in certain ways. Some research has shown that organisms will change their call’s timing and/or frequency so as not to interfere with other sounds in their physical environment. For instance, some frogs communicate their territorial calls using high frequencies. This may be a natural adaptation to their habitat, where the low frequency sounds of running water are prevalent. Other behavioral changes may happen in response to anthrophony: some birds will adjust their songs in environments where there is a lot of human-generated noise.
Soundscape ecology overlaps with sensory ecology, which focuses on how and why organisms gather information from their environment. Some organisms take advantage of soundscape noise to navigate or to hunt, while other organisms may take busy auditory signals as a sign of danger. From this data, we can research not only how ecosystems impact soundscapes, but how soundscapes impact ecosystems.
Another benefit of soundscape research is that it encourages interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary study. Ecologists, social scientists, engineers, astrophysicists, and musicians have all turned to soundscapes to help broaden their field of research.
A scientist captures a soundscape using an audio recording device. Credit: Till Bovermann/CC BY-SA 4.0
Are soundscapes the same as sonification?
Soundscapes and sonification are not the same, but they are somewhat related!
Sonification uses audio to convey information or perceptualize data. There is a lot of great work currently being done in the field of sonification! For example, our friends at NASA’s Chandra X-Ray Observatory have used data sonification to turn the light from astronomical images into sound. Think of it like translation. Sometimes we are limited in our ability to see scientific data, but if we translate it into another medium like audio, we may be able to hear it. And because auditory perception has some advantages (in that it allows us to perceive temporal, spatial, amplitude, and frequency information) it may help us understand the information even better.
One major advantage of data sonification is that it opens doors for people who do not learn visually, including people with blindness or vision impairments. This is also true of soundscapes!
What is an Eclipse Soundscape?
The Eclipse Soundscapes Project will explore how celestial events, like eclipses, can impact life on earth. By collecting and studying soundscapes prior to, during, and after eclipses, we hope to better understand how eclipses change human and animal activity. There is some anecdotal evidence that the changes in light an eclipse causes may influence animal behavior. For instance, nocturnal animals may stir when it starts to get dark, and diurnal animals may vocalize as the eclipse passes and the light returns — this phenomenon is known as a “false dawn chorus.”
These accounts are anecdotal, and to date there is little scientific evidence to prove or disprove these occurrences. By recording a variety of soundscapes and analyzing spectrograms, our scientists hope to identify trends in animal behavior.