About CoolCosmos
CoolCosmos is an unconventional initiative – an approach we call "in-your-face outreach" – to pique people's curiosity about the cosmos they live in, as we celebrate the International Year of Astronomy in 2009. Our goal is to reach that vast majority of the population for whom the science of astronomy just does not enter daily life, and remind them about our cosmic connections.
A pivotal piece of CoolCosmos is a four-week campaign of 3000 ads on the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), which provides over 35 million rides each month on its subway cars, street cars and buses. The same five designs also feature in 50,000 bookmarks that will be distributed at various outreach events and through libraries and schools. Both the transit ads and the bookmarks point to the CoolCosmos.net web site, which expands on the science behind them through podcasts and graphic-rich articles.
Credits
- » Concept and coordination: Ray Jayawardhana
- » Ad design: Rose Schimm
with input from David Lafrenière, Erin Mentuch,
Kathy Perrett, Peter Martin and Ray Jayawardhana - » Story and audio production: Ivan Semeniuk
- » Featured interviews: John Dubinski, Rodrigo Fernandez, Elizabeth Harper-Clark, David Lafrenière, Jonathan Sievers
- » Montréal campaign: Denise Laflamme, Rene Doyon, and CRAQ
- » Web site: Kathy Perrett
Media coverage
- U of T press release
- Discovery Channel's Daily Planet (Jan 5, 2009)
- The Toronto Sun: "Looking for stars? Try the TTC!" (Jan 6, 2009)
- 24hrs: "Looking Up" (Jan 6, 2009)
- Phil Plait's blog at Discover: "Busing in astronomy" (Jan 6, 2009)
- physicsworld: "Let those neutrinos through" (Jan 6, 2009)
- Torontoist: "Rocket to the Stars" (Jan 8, 2009)
- CBC Metro Morning [podcast] (Jan 9, 2009)
- Globe & Mail: "See the galaxy from inside the Red Rocket" (Jan 10, 2009)
- Globe & Mail: IYA Kickoff party pictures
- Science: "Cool Cosmos" (Jan 16, 2009)
- Cosmic Variance blog at Discover (Mar 29, 2009)
- SkyNews IYA blog (Jun 5, 2009)
