AstroFest Cappadocia

When it is dark look at stars.

We often miss things around us, especially when we are too busy to pay attention. In our gloriously modern world, each of us has daily routines. We work in the same place everyday. We go to the same restaurants to have lunch. We head to our homes using the closest route instead of discovering new ones. The modern world confines us for the most part to these routines everyday because it puts a great distance between the natural environment and ourselves. During the day, how many of us look up to see the clear blue sky that graces Turkey, especially during the summer? In truth, we often forget the beauty of this world while chasing other things throughout our short lives.

The starry night is one of the grandest sights that is accessible to human beings. Nightscapes are among the greatest sources of inspiration for humanity throughout the history, ages and cultures. It has been a universal experience and the night sky is a kind of our connection to the Universe, our openness to infinity and our window on the mystery of our origins.

There is no need to be an expert on astromy to enjoy and feel the stars. It is a show for everyone! One can contemplate alone or in groups, with the naked eye or with an optical instrument. Konya Science Center astronomy club is one of the ideal places to experience telescope viewing for anybody interested. But beware! This spectacular show is now threatened with the extinction due to the growth of light pollution! Don't miss out this chance. It is still not too late.

The AstroFest event was organized by Konya Science Center (KSC) between 27-29 July 2018 in Nevşehir, Cappadocia. The AstroFest event is a business model, jointly prepared by Necmettin Erbakan University, Konya Science Center and Konya Metropolitan Municipality within the scope of an intellectual output (IO4) of TOURBAN Project. After business model plan this event realized and financed bythe cooperation of KOP, Konya Metropolitan Municipality, the Ministry of National Education and Nevşehir Provincial Culture and Tourism Directorate.

KOP: Konya Plain Project Regional Development Administration (KOP) has a large working area in its region (Konya, Karaman, Aksaray, Niğde, Nevşehir, Yozgat, Kırşehir and Kırırkkale). It performs studies and activities collaboratively with all the institutions in the region. Konya Plain Project Regional Development Administration was founded by Ministry of Development in 2011 to plan, follow, evaluate, and coordinate public investments in underdeveloped regions of our country and to raise the potential of the region with action plans. Astrofest Project will be performed in KOP region and huge part of the financial support will be provided by KOP.

Konya Metropolitan Municipality: Municipality, responsible for infrastructure and superstructure of residential area in the borders of Konya Province, has also founded Konya Science Center within the framework of its investment policies. Since the budget of Konya Science Center is funded by the Municipality, Municipality will also provide financial support for the Astrofest Project.

National Education Directorate: National Education Directorate, which carries out and controls all activities related with education in our country, will get the permissions and follow the process for the students and schools which will participate in Astrofest Project.

Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism: Nevsehir Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism, performing activities to promote Urgup, Nevsehir will determine the field where this project will be performed and provide infrastructure services there as well as promoting the project in their region.

Nevsehir Provincial Directorate of Culture and Tourism which perform activities to promote Urgup, Nevsehir will determine the field where this project will be performed and provide infrastructure services there as well as promoting the project in their region.

Astrofest Project includes workshops and observations, most of which will be performed in Nevsehir Urgup Love Valley. The remaining part will be held in Konya Science Center. The events and activities are listed below:

Workshops:

1. ‘Let’s Know the Planets’ Workshop: The participants are required to build a model of solar system by comparing the planets with each other and set them according to their distance from the Sun, thus the participants can develop their designing skills.

2. Spacecraft Model Workshop: The participants learn the difference between a spacecraft and a rocket and build a model, thus the participants can develop their designing skills.

3. Clay Tablet Workshop: The participants learn how to make a clay tablet and build a model, thus the participants can develop their designing skills.

4. Star Lantern Workshop: The participants learn what star cluster or constellation is, how they are named, and their shapes.

5. Dram Astronomy Workshop: The participants learn the characteristics of the sun and planets through drama.

6. Sundial Model Workshop: The participants learn the characteristics of the sun and build a material that shows the time using sunbeam

7. Crater Formation Show: The participants learn the size, shape, surface and atmosphere of the moon.

8. ‘Let’s make a circuit’ Workshop: The participants make a simple circuit using a switch, battery play though and LED, thus they learn the parts of a circuit.

9. ‘I’m making a kite’ Workshop: The participants learn how the kites fly.

10.Water Rocket Competition: The participants build their own unique water rockets controlling their scientific process skills.

Observation:

1. Sun Observation: The participants observe the physical characteristic of the sun as well as the sun spots with telescopes.

2. Night Observation: Constellations, moon and the planets are observed with telescopes.

Accommodation and organization: The participants of Astrofest will be provided half board accommodation in USET in Nevsehir for 2 days. The transfer from USET to Love Valley, where the night observation will be performed, will be provided.

The necessary technical infrastructure (generator, cabling, illumination etc.) in Love Valley will be determined and provided by the staff of Konya Science Center. KSC will also coordinate the staff taking part in Astrofest activities and plan catering (sandwich, beverages, etc.) for the participants who take part in the observation in Love Valley.

All materials necessary for Astroart Workshop and Astrofest activities will be provided by KSC. The fund for these will be covered by KOP and the Municipality.

By combining astronomy and art in this Project, it is aimed to create Astronomy Art (Astroart) Workshop, from which disadvantageous groups can benefit. It is planned to organize Astronomy Fest (Astrofest) at the end of the workshop.

The interest for astronomy and space sciences has been developing in our country in recent years. In addition to national public institutions such as TUBITAK, various institutions, science centers, universities and professional astronomy clubs carrying astronomy events and performing dissemination activities are organizing different trainings and cultural, sportive and artistic activities related to astronomy.

Taking the abovementioned issues into consideration and in line with its mission, Konya Science Center is planning to create Astroart Workshop and then organize Astrofest themed ‘Sky for Everyone’ to make astronomy more popular with the activities throughout the country using STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math) which attract great interest in our country.

With this Project it is aimed to raise interest towards astronomy and space science, to combine astronomy with art and to spread scientific information.

- To integrate astronomy with daily life, which is one of the fundamental missions of the science center.

- To make astronomy and space science popular among the society.

- To make and present astronomy more tangible by combining astronomy with art.

- To make target audience take part in workshops and specifically designed themed activities in given period.

- To disseminate STEAM activities performed in the workshops and in the festival.

- To raise awareness and curiosity among all parts of the society towards astronomy and space sciences with the help of astronomy fest that will be organized at the end of the workshops.

Solutions for following problems will be offered thanks to Astrofest Project:

- The disadvantageous groups do not have the opportunity to attend such activities

- There are a lot of misinformation on space science and astronomy knowledge

- The education on astronomy and space sciences is intangible, thus the children and youth could not get efficient outputs from this education.

- The interest for space have not been reached at the aimed level in our country.

Staff who is going to be assign in this project have enough academic background that will enable the scientific educational infrastructure of Astroart and Astrofest. In addition to that, project team have hold some activities suited for methodology of popular science in various fields and topics for different age groups.

In this frame, the project will be introduced by using the attraction of the region mainly through social media and internet media. The touristic popularity of the region will make an important contribution to the increase in the number of participants in the project.

The Science Center also aims to strengthen its participation in this organization by attracting its own visitor population to this region.

University students constitute an important group in our country in terms of demographics. In this project, university students who will be active with the title of "volunteer" will also be included in popular astronomy studies as participants. In order to spread such kind of events in our country, astronomy science has to be a part in people's life since their childhood. Children participating in this project will be able to add astronomy to their popular interests from early age. Sadly, the disadvantaged groups can not live their lives properly. In this event we will give equal chances to these disadvantaged group who are physically disabled or the ones who can not financially participate because pf their socio-economic disadvantages. Furthermore, It is particularly difficult for children living in rural areas of our country to participate in such activities. Within the scope of this project, astronomy workshops will be offered mostly to these students coming from village schools of Nevşehir, where Astrofest will be held. Our stakeholders supporting this project (KOP, Konya Metropolitan Municipality, Nevşehir Culture and Tourism Directorate) will take an important social responsibility for the integration of these disadvantaged group in our event.

The following ways are planned for the promotion of this organization:

-Invitation letters will be sent to important protocol representatives and special guests of the science center.

- Billboards: on which dates of the event will take place, how participation will be possible and where information about the festival will be available.

- Social media: video, pop-up, or visual adds that will appear on various social media tools that include visual and audiovisual promotions about Astrofest.

- Advertisement about Astrofest will be available through local press both in Konya and Nevşehir as well as various online media which broadcast on social media.

- Posters and brochures will be available in promotion and advertisement of the event.

Secondary and higher education students can take an active part in exhibitions and workshop programs under the name of "volunteering program" which is performed within Konya Science Center on certain days of the week. Each term several students continue to benefit from this practice realized by KBM for 4 years. In Astrofest project, there will be "volunteer" high school and university students and they will be employed in various fields throughout the activity. Acomodation expenses of volunteer students will be covered as well as some pocket money daily for them. Various workshops and observation activities will be held dueing the festival. The workshop materials and their expenses will be reimbursed within the framework of this organization and will be covered by the science center.

Throughout this organization as Konya Science Center team, we will be working collaboratively with the related stakeholders from different institutions and organizations and we will gain new experiences in order to held such big organizations.

Through symposium and workshops where the science center team will attend in near future, they will share their knowledge and experience about this Astrofest projec with other science center staff and they will provide experience and infrastructure support for them to carry out such events in the future as well as taking into consideration the shortcomings. This will be a kind of starter and the future AstroFest events will be rearranged and improved on this event.

Cappadocia, with its natural and historical landscape has become one of the most attractive tourism destinations in the world. Located in central Anatolia, Cappadocia is a very unique region with its whole natural and historical characteristics. Its special geological structure is shaped by human hand; namely, the early Christian communities of Anatolia who, seeking security, took refugee in the region more than one thousand years ago. The region became a popular destination for tourists especially since the last two decades and received quite intensive tourism investments. All this development took place in a rather short period of time spanning only 20 years. Such a rapid development was usually unplanned. Moreover, they were not grounded on sound feasibility studies with a concern also for sustainability.

On the other hand, although resources were allocated to Cappadocia with its inclusion in the world heritage list, they are unfortunately not enough to conserve and protect the rich cultural heritage. Today, Cappadocia region is visited by nearly three millions of tourists in a year who flock to the region only during two months, July and August. Thus, the negative pulsar effects of this tourist flow in Cappadocia are immense and jeopardize the integrity of the natural and historical values of the region. Major problems that arise from such sudden hits of tourism can be identified as follows:

Such large numbers of tourists visit the area only for short periods of time. That is the duration of stay of tourists in Cappadocia averages to only 2 days or they come and go on a daily basis. Thus, making the economic contribution of tourism in the area insufficient. Tours that are mainly organized by large international or national agencies leave only a small sum of the actual expenses in the area and often local population is excluded from the benefits of tourism. But the destruction that is caused by tourism is enormous. Altough number of tourists is rising, the capacity of touristic acco modation is still inadequate. In order to extend the duration of stay, development of releated tourism facilities should be priority in planning studies.

In order to achieve this goal, beside cultural tourism, other types of tourism should also be developed in order to provide tourist demand during the off seasons. With its unique atmosphere and with a dizzying array of stars and constellations blanketing the night skies, Cappadocia, with its light pollution-free locations and clear skies, offers you the serenity of stargazing.

Stargazing has been accepted as a new, breaking form of tourism - traveling not for the sun, sand or beach, but for the sky. Described as "dark sky tourism," Cappadocia offers many places free from light pollution to feel the magic of a dizzying array of stars and constellations blanketing the night skies. This new fascination gets you away from nightclubs and crowded beaches and takes you to the secluded beaches and mountainsides of Turkey.

The magical region of Cappadocia in the Anatolian province of Nevşehir, with its historic remains that stand as some of the most renowned ancient natural wonders, invites you to ride to the core of Anatolia. Through wind and melting snow, the region has been carved out of volcanic rock over centuries and displays amazing colors and shapes unique to Cappadocia such as the fairy chimneys (also known as hoodoos). Even though the main attraction in Cappadocia is hot air ballooning to catch the bird's eye view of this magical place, the real travelers know that if you find the correct peak in the clear night, you will witness shooting stars above the beautiful fairy chimneys.

To witness the magic Cappadocia offers to you, Konya Science Center is planning to held one of its stargazing events in Cappadocia between the dates of 27th-29th of July so that all interested people, families with their kids, students, colleagues will come together for three day perion to taste the unique atmosphere of Cappadocia rather than hot air ballooning, attending local events, fairs, recreational ranches and sports facilities such as hiking and horse riding. During these days, you can witness several wonders in the most suitable place for you to experience it is Turkey. In general, the sky of Central Anatolia is very clear, that is why you still have the chance to watch night skies.

To cope with mass tourism, alternative ways of traveling in the heritage should be developed in Cappadocia region so that it faces a double challenge. Whether to hand over the tourist demands and continue overly consuming the environment up to a moment that tourism will eventually end or to develop strategies to cope with these effects and manage in a sustainable way which also benefits the local population. AstroFest is one of these sustainable strategies that can provide distinctive experiences for the tourists and economical benefit of locals. For a sustainable development other complementary and supportive economic activities should be developed to bolster the local communities diversity and long term viability.

The impact of the output of this event will be mesured through social media channels by the help of designated tags of internet users such as #kbmastrofest. Content analysis of the shared posts will be done in the context of this event in the social media.

Running an Instagram contest is one of the best ways to generate engagement and measure the impact. When it comes to #hashtags, the only constant is how utterly powerful they can be for your engagement, event awareness, and post virality.

Why instagram contest:

• It's easy to enter: Instagram hashtag contest is simple - all entrants need to do is post an Instagram photo with the contest's branded hashtag such as #KonyaScienceAstrofest or #Konyastrofest
• The content is great: Konya Science Center can use the content entrants contribute for future promotion or marketing campaigns on social media, or for daily posts.
• There's voting: Voting is great for a contest because it gets people who aren't planning on entering to engage with our contest and AstroFest event.
• Multiple prizes are amazing: Konya Science Center maximizes their contest's conversion rate by offering multiple prizes to the participants. People are more likely to enter if they believe they have a realistic chance of winning.
• The content: KSC does a good job at establishing their event as a reliable and valuable source of information for AstroFest event information by providing enough information right on their contest page.

Cost per attendee, this is to measure how much KSC paid to acquire an attendee. We can calculate the cost simply by dividing the event marketing cost by the number of attendees. This metric can be used to let us know whether or not our event marketing is cost effective based on how many people it can bring to the event.

The Feedback: Pre-Test and Post-event Survey Responses: Though this may not exactly counted as a metric, it is very helpful to know if our participants were satisfied with their experience and if they plan to attend our next events. Chances are not many people will give us detailed feedback, so we can develop a nice survey and send invitation to take it. Having a well-designed, respondent-friendly survey is imperative. Respondents in this way can tell how much effort and thought has gone into the survey and they respond accordingly. Since we will have a diverse audience our questions should “cast a wider net” in order to prevent bias survey results. Our survey should be short and to the point getting rid of unnecessary questions. There wil be one or two open ended questions so that participants can share open comments. In terms of evaluating the program content, participants who will take part in workshops and observations are pre-tested and we will have the necessary knowledge about their expectations, needs and their attitudes before the event started. Then, after the workshops and observations a post-test will be carried out and a comparison will be made between these two results. In a pre-test/post-test design, the important thing is the same participants should be measured on the variables of interest at multiple points in time.ou could then conduct a repeated-measures analysis (such as a dependent samples t-test) to see if the participants’ attitudes significantly change from before the campaign (the pre-test) to after the campaign (the post-test). One of the main advantages of pre-test/post-test designs is that the associated repeated-measures statistical analyses tend to be more powerful, and thus require considerably smaller sample sizes, than other types of analyses. Thus, the content efficiency of the organization will be understood. Some of the participants are also interviewed during the event getting their direct comments.

There’re actually more ways to measure the success of our event but those above are the essential metrics that we take into consideration in the evaluation part.

Email: kevserar@hotmail.com
Website: www.tourbanproject.org
Location: Konya Bilim Merkezi, Ankara Caddesi, Büyükkayacık Osb/Selçuklu/Konya, Turkey
Facebook: facebook.com/tourbanproject
Twitter: @tourbanproject

“Funded by the Erasmus+ Program of the European Union. However, European Commission and Turkish National Agency cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.”