Education Notes
Report of the Education Session at CASCA 2007, Kingston
This year saw an unprecedented number of education and outreach contributions to the CASCA AGM in Kingston, with five oral presentations and five poster presentations. This was wonderful to see, as much of astronomy is tied in with outreach, and is becoming increasingly important with the International Year of Astronomy (IYA) quickly approaching in 2009.
The Education and Public Outreach Session, chaired by Jayanne English, began on that very topic, with Jim Hesser speaking on the Canadian plans for the IYA. Jim represented volunteers from CASCA, the RASC and the FAAQ as well as various science centres and planetaria across the country, in sharing the themes for IYA2009: Observing the Sky; Sharing discoveries and promoting astronomy as a hobby; Astronomy everywhere; and Near- and Long-term legacies. If you have any ideas on how we can “offer an engaging astronomy experience to every Canadian,” please forward your ideas to Jim, or any of the other IYA committee members. Dennis Crabtree also presented a poster on the IAU’s global efforts for IYA2009.
Two talks focused on how teaching can move from basic lecturing into lessons involving active student learning. Magdalen Normandeau spoke on how role-playing activities in the classroom place emphasis on how science is done as a process, allowing students to gain more of an appreciation for science as a research field. The role-playing model, developed by Paul Francis of ANU, effectively combines problem-solving with peer instruction. More information is available at
http://msowww.anu.edu.au/~pfrancis/roleplay.html
Meanwhile, Heather Theijsmeijer spoke on moving away from lecturing processes in order to teach the whole student, as well as the difference between professing vs. teaching/learning vs. understanding scientific concepts. More on this topic can be found in this issue of E-Cass, and online shortly at the CASCAed website.
David Turner presented a talk on “Observing Exercises for Advanced Astronomy Specialists,” paired with a poster on the joys of astronomical discoveries with small telescopes. Tying in nicely with a theme of moving away from traditional methods of teaching, David presented a variety of exercises and projects that can be carried out at the campus telescope to give students both observing experience and research challenges. Many of these projects, such as asteroid observing, open cluster HR diagrams or stellar spectroscopy could be continued for summer work or graduate-level work.
Similarly, Paul Delaney presented a poster on the recent results of undergraduate students observing transiting exoplanets using the telescope at the York University campus. The project placed emphasis on students collecting and reducing their own data, and linking their results with other topic such as planet formation, gravitational lensing and Doppler shift.
Also related to educational practices, a poster by Alison Sills outlined the effectiveness of inquiry-based learning in an upper level undergraduate astronomy course. Beginning with an introductory question or concept, in-class groups propose and refine questions in order to complete a research project using real data, analysis software or research code.
On the topic of public outreach, Phil Langill presented an introduction to the location and suite of telescopes of the University of Calgary’s Rothney Astrophysical Observatory. Their newly-renovated interpretive centre serves both the public and the Calgary school system through outreach activities, virtual tours and live streaming webcasts of talks and astronomical events. More information on the RAO is available at http://www.phas.ucalgary.ca/rao
Two more public outreach initiatives were presented in poster form. Alyssa Moldowan wrote on the University of Western Ontario’s new astronomy outreach program “Exploring the Stars” ( http://www.astro.uwo.ca/exploringthestars ) and their success with newly-developed activities and presentations.
Jayanne English presented the AstronomyCanada.ca “Strut Your (Space) Stuff” contest – a chance for you to share your recent research and activities in a way that appeals to the public. Submit your image/illustration, brief article or outline for a podcast for a chance to win, and in the meantime, pique the interest of the lay public, increasing their knowledge of Canadian Astronomy. This is open to ALL CASCA members, including graduate students and post-doctoral fellows. Be sure to contact Jayanne for more information.