Astronomy Education Resources
As NASA Administrator Dan Goldin has noted, young students are
especially interested in three things: ghosts, dinosaurs, and space.
We need to capitalize on the interest in space to develop and encourage
a continuing understanding and curiosity about space-related issues
from the grade school level through adulthood. Unfortunately, because
astronomy is usually only offered in college as a lower division
elective or as a specialized area of graduate study, most pre-college
educators are uncomfortable teaching space sciences in the classroom.
Additionally, the particularly dynamic nature of the field leaves
educators with materials that are out of date and inadequate. In the
framework of the new educational pedagogy focusing on hands-on
activities, this paper presents a discussion of technologically
innovative resources for the space science classroom (primarily at the
high school level) which utilize hands-on activities for the students.
The discussion will focus in five areas: major high-tech programs
(which require specialized equipment in the schools), national and
local workshops available to educators, hands-on activities
commercially available, educational astronomical resources, and
examples of hands-on activities developed and expanded upon by teachers
and astronomers attending an educational workshop in Hawaii from
1993-1995.
Introduction
With the general level of public scientific literacy declining, there
is a large push to raise scientific literacy standards. This has been
reflected in a White House policy (?) issued in 1994 which stated that
a goal of the United States in this area is to both produce
high-quality scientists and engineers to meet the needs of the next
century and to increase the level of scientific literacy in the general
public by the turn of the century. Astronomy is a unique field in that
it evokes a fundamental interest in exploration and the search for our
origins which has long been rooted in humankinds curiosity - perhaps
more so than in any other field. This public appeal, combined with the
general interdisciplinary nature of the field gives it a high potential
as an educational avenue for increasing scientific awareness. However,
in these tight fiscal times, many educational programs are focusing on
areas which can provide practical training for future job-related
skills. This is particularly pronounced in areas such as Hawaii, where
for many public high- schools, only 20-30% of the students may continue
on to higher education. Whereas some may consider space science to be
somewhat esoteric, the fascination that the field holds for young
people in particular, suggests that while for many astronomy might not
provide practical on-the-job training skills, the critical thinking
skills and motivation which can be developed in students through space
science and astronomy education are probably far more valuable assets
than specific skills.
Astronomy and space science education in the United States falls
primarily in the middle school level, appearing generally as a unit in
the Earth Sciences classes. For younger age groups, while there may be
some introduction to the members of the solar system, the cognitive
development of elementary school children is not sufficiently advanced
to understand the spatial concepts inherent with the three- dimensional
nature of the field. Unlike other areas of science which get recycled
again in the high school years, unless there is a special interest on
the part of the teacher, astronomy and space science often do not
re-appear in high school. Students have their first real experience
with astronomy as an introductory level course in the Universities, and
a large number of students take these astronomy courses each year as a
means of fulfilling science distribution requirements. Out of these
masses, a few continue on to do research in the space sciences. While
there is no question that the US is a leader in the production of
research scientists in space science, we are not doing a good job at
maintaining a strong science literacy in the general population. This
is due in part to the fact that most astronomy is introduced rather
late in the educational process, in large lecture-style classes which
are not as conducive to hands-on learning. Studies have shown that the
inquiry-based, hands on learning is a far more effective concept (ref)
to develop meaningful understanding for most students than the
traditional lecture-based curricula.
Unfortunately, since most middle and high-school educators have
themselves gone through this same system, they feel unprepared to
introduce innovative space science resources into curricula at younger
levels. Additionally, the field is particularly dynamic, and those
teachers who do include space science in their curricula quickly find
themselves out-of-date with neither the time, resources or the
knowledge as to how to keep up in this rapidly evolving field. There
has been a recent explosion in the availability of new, innovative
materials which reflect the current understanding in space
science, and which incorporate the new educational standards (ref for
this). The purpose of this paper is to highlight sources of
information on how to obtain these materials for the classroom.
The resource materials presented on this web page were collected and
developed as a result of an astronomical educational workshop for top
high-school teacher-student pairs held in Hawaii from 1993-1995. The
goals of the week-long program were three-fold: (i) to make
high-school teachers (in science and mathematics) aware of the hands-on
material available and train them in the use of the materials; (ii) to
provide students with information and what careers in science are like;
and (iii) to create an awareness in Hawaii of the forefront
astronomical research being conducted using the Mauna Kea Observatory
facilities one of the worlds premier observing sites. The workshop
theme, Toward Other Planetary Systems (TOPS) was chosen in part because
it is a focus of research in Hawaii, and in part because of the
interdisciplinary nature of the topic which incorporates astronomy,
physics, chemistry and biology. The program was a mixture of lectures,
demonstrations, hands-on activities, field trips and research. Guest
speakers, totaling upwards of 30 per year, included faculty from the
University of Hawaii system, scientists and engineers from the
observatories, scientists from other research organizations on the
mainland, education specialists, local teachers, and graduate
students. One of the great strengths of the program was the presence
of the high school students which greatly facilitated the learning
process for the teachers who could see first hand how the activities
they tried were received by students. The students also benefited from
working along side their teachers in a new capacity as fellow
students. The format of the workshop placed the role of the teacher as
one of facilitator and fellow student, rather than the all-knowing
source of information.
Resource Materials
The resources on this web page include a mixture of high-tech
materials and those which do not require advanced technology. The
reality is that while many schools have modern equipment, with internet
connections to the classroom, there are many areas where resources are
minimal. This latter situation is particularly relevant to developing
countries, which may be in desperate need of an increase in scientific
literacy but which lack any resources to bring innovative materials to
the classroom. In many school systems where resources exist, there are
no funds available to update and improve the materials. Another common
problem which comes with educational fiscal austerity, is that class
sizes are becoming larger, and the teachers are being asked to teach
more classes. More than financial hardship, one of the major
impediments to the introduction of space science materials into the
classroom is the lack of space and time. With heavy workloads,
teachers cannot be expected to seek out and locate new innovative
activities, let alone develop new materials for the classroom.
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Last modified: August 1, 1996