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WebBased Astronomy Curriculum in the Elementary Classroom

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An extensive astronomy glossary is accessible via hotlink from all content modules ... Astronomy Glossary. All of the astronomy content covered is divided into ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: WebBased Astronomy Curriculum in the Elementary Classroom


1
Web-Based Astronomy Curriculum in the Elementary
Classroom
  • Travis Whyte
  • University of Alberta/Educational Media
    Technologies

Imperial Oil National Center for Mathematics,
Science, and Technology Education University of
Alberta Edmonton, Alberta www.ioncmaste.ca
2
IONCMASTE (Imperial Oil National Center for
Mathematics, Science and Technology Education)
  • A centre for the promotion of teaching, research
    and curriculum excellence in school science,
    mathematics, and technology education
  • Provide leadership in disseminating current
    research
  • Working closely with teachers locally and in
    developing countries
  • None profit organization supported by generous
    donations from Imperial Oil

http//www.ioncmaste.ca
3
Web-Based Astronomy Curriculum Development Project
  • Approached by the CSA in fall 2001
  • Develop astronomy curriculum resources for sixth
    grade Pan-Canadian curriculum expectations
  • Web-based Text based
  • Teacher/student friendly
  • Use highly visual technology elements (images,
    flash, QuickTime and JavaScript ) to teach
    astronomy

4
Astronomy Education Assessment
  • Problem
  • Challenging subject for many elementary
    school teachers
  • Subject complexity
  • Shortage of quality resources
  • Outcome
  • Students left with
  • Misleading information
  • A feeling that astronomy as a science is
    unimportant
  • A missed opportunity to learn of the wonders of
    the Universe

5
Goals of the Project
  • Develop a curriculum resource tool for teachers
    and students including
  • appropriate astronomy information to first teach
    the teachers
  • information relating key concepts to curriculum
  • extensive visuals to demonstrate difficult
    concepts and to spark further interest and
    intrigue
  • wide range of appropriate lesson plans and
    activities
  • evaluation strategies

6
Curriculum Resources Included
7
Content Modules
  • Introduction to the Day and Night Sky
  • The Sun and Stars
  • The Earth and the Moon
  • The Planets
  • Comets, Meteors and Asteroids
  • The Milky Way and Beyond
  • Astronomers and Their Tools

8
What are Interactive Applets?
  • An applet is an interactive learning tool that
    acts like a mini-program running within a web
    browser (Flash, QuickTime, JavaScript).
  • Users will interact with the applet through
    different means, including movie controller
    buttons and other labeled buttons and input
    windows.
  • The applets used in this website have been
    designed as teaching and learning tools to be
    used by both teachers and students in an attempt
    to augment the curriculum

9
Some of the Applets Titles
  • Tracking Sun Spots
  • Phases of the Moon
  • Reasons for the Seasons
  • Solar and Lunar Eclipses
  • The Solar System
  • Our Home in the Milky Way

10
Applet Tracking Sunspots
  • Using actual solar images students will track and
    measure sunspot displacements in an attempt to
    determine solar rotation rates and identifying
    differential rotation.
  • Students also have the option of determining the
    size of the sunspot after which a comparison to
    Earth is made.

Click image to load
11
Applet Phases of the Moon
  • This applet demonstrates the interactions between
    the Sun, Moon and Earth which help to produce the
    phases of the Moon.
  • The animation clearly shows the orbital position
    of the Moon and the corresponding phase as
    observed from Earth.

Click image to load
12
Applet Reasons for the Seasons
  • This applet demonstrates the interactions between
    the Sun, Moon and Earth which help to produce the
    seasonal effects on Earth.
  • The animation clearly shows the orbital position
    of the Earth and the Earths axial tilt which
    together affect how the Suns rays impact the
    Earth.
  • Direct rays summer
  • Indirect rays winter

Click image to load
Northern Hemisphere
13
Applet Solar and Lunar Eclipses
  • This applet demonstrates the interactions between
    the Sun, Moon and Earth which help to produce
    solar and lunar eclipses.
  • Beginning with an analysis of the orientation of
    the Sun, Moon and Earth, the applet allows users
    to further investigate the alignments necessary
    to produce the different kinds of eclipses.

Click image to load
14
Applet The Solar System
  • This applet is designed to help students
    visualize the structure of the solar system while
    gaining an appreciation for the orbital speeds
    (ie. The length of a year).
  • Students will learn that the planets closest to
    the Sun rotate significantly faster than the
    outer planets.

Click image to load
Show applet
15
Applet Our Home in the Milky Way
  • This applet is designed to give students an
    appreciation for the vast size of the Milky Way
    Galaxy.
  • Beginning with a view of the entire galaxy, the
    perspective zooms in to a view of the solar
    system, then to the Earth and Moon and ultimately
    to a view of only the Earth.
  • An approximate field size is shown

Click image to load
16
About the Lesson Plans
  • The lesson plans included in this website have
    been designed to be used sequentially or as part
    of a complete unit.
  • Teachers are encouraged to use as much or as
    little of the content as they require for their
    particular classroom needs.
  • Many of the lessons include cross-curricular
    elements including (Art, Language Arts, and
    Mathematics)
  • Evaluation rubrics are included with all lessons

17
Some of the Lesson Plan Titles
  • Building and using a sundial
  • Illustrating the constellations
  • Tracking and tracing sunspots
  • Observing and sketching the lunar surface
  • An explorative journey of the solar system
  • Your weight on other planets
  • Plan a mission to a recently discovered planet
  • Timeline of astronomy events and discoveries

18
Student Access Site
  • The website has been designed to be accessible by
    both teachers and students.
  • The student version of the website contains
  • content material
  • astronomy glossary
  • interactive applets questions
  • The interactive applets are followed by multiple
    choice javascript questions derived directly from
    the applet.

19
Summing it up
  • The elements and format used for organizing the
    content modules will serve both the teachers and
    students well.
  • Teaching the teachers the content
  • Offer suggestions for presenting and teaching the
    materials
  • Provide a wide variety of lesson plans
  • Offer hands-on and technology-assisted learning
    experiences
  • Reinforce the content with appropriate evaluation
    rubrics and strategies

20
What are Teachers Saying?
  • I find the curriculum resources extremely
    informative and user friendly.
  • The information and applets are wonderful. I
    will definitely use them when teaching my Grade 6
    Sky Science unit.
  • The student section of the Web-Based Astronomy
    Curriculum is helpful and will be enjoyed by the
    students.
  • This is an excellent reinforcement tool that
    makes the students think about what they have
    learned.

21
The Next Step
  • Currently the content materials are limited to
    the sixth grade curriculum.
  • Follow up projects are currently being developed
    for both the ninth and twelfth grade curricula.
  • French language translations are also in the
    development stages for the sixth, ninth, and
    twelfth grade .

22
Where is the Website?
  • The website is temporarily being hosted by the
    University of Alberta
  • http//www.ioncmaste.ca/astronomy
  • The webiste will soon be moved onto the Canadian
    Space Agencys website
  • http//www.space.gc.ca/

23
Thanks
  • If you would like more information or require
    assistance using the website, please contact me
  • Travis Whyte
  • tgwhyte_at_telusplanet.net
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