Galileo Teacher Training Program Workshop – Day One September 14, 2009
Posted by astroed in Astronomy.Tags: Astronomy, galileo, Galileoscope, IYA
add a comment
I’m in San Francisco for the ASP’s Annual Meeting on astronomy education and outreach. Prior to the three-day meeting I’m participating in a 1 1/2 day workshop for teachers, one of the first Galileo Teacher Training Program (GTTP) workshops held in the US. The workshop participants are mostly school teachers, some at elementary (primary), some middle school and some at high school. A few teach at community colleges then there were also a few of us astro ed professionals or spies as we were introduced as.
The day one presenters were a highly experienced bunch; Dennis Schatz from the Pacific Science Center, Andrew Fraknoi from the ASP and Foothill College and Rob Sparks from NOAO (read his blog here). Andrew started with and icebreaker activity where we all introduced ourselves then gave us an intro to Galileo followed by an overview of the realms of the Universe, working out from the Solar System to the Milky Way then beyond. We then tackled a fun activity: Bill Gates’ Great Great Grand-daughter’s Honeymoon Trip” 10 Tourist Wonders of the Solar System. Lots of discussion about the best tourist sites in the Solar System.
Dennis Schatz demonstrating apparent orbits of Moon and Sun around Earth.
Dennis then gave asession on elements of effective instruction. He showed a segment from the influential film A Private Universe highlighting misconceptions by Harvard graduating students, faculty and alumni and with school students. He stressed the importance of identifying students’ preconceptions, using advance disornaizers, and analogies. Connect into real-world experiences, embed on-going assessment experiences and encourage them to reflect on their understanding with others. After morning tea Dennis continued with a session on modelling lunar phases. I found his demonstration using hula hoops of why eclipses don’t occur each month really handy and one I will try to use from now on.
After lunch Andrew introduced an activity for students to replicate Galileo’s observations of the moons of Jupiter then Dennis showed how to build a starwheel and use it within a classroom with constellation images on butchers paper on classroom walls, another great idea.
Using laser levellers and a vellum screen.
The final part of the day was presented by Rob Sparks. Every participant received their own Galileoscope! Rob showed us some effective optics demonstrations using large lenses, vellum screens and laser levellers. Spray fog reveals laser beams clearly as you can see in the photo below. We used the new construction instructions available from the Galileoscope website to build our scopes. Along the way we were able to measure the focal length of the 50mm f/10 objective lens. It was interesting to compare the difference between the 4-element eyepiece and the two-element Galilean eyepiece. The narrow field-of-view of the Galielan eyepiece makes you appreciate his skill as an observer.
Laser light rays visible via spray fog. Note the focal length of the lens.
Overall it was a really useful and stimulating day! Lots of ideas and activities for me to incorporate into my workshops back home.
Workshop participants; proud owners of new Galileoscopes. Tam Huynh from Evergreen Elementary School on left
Science Week in Geraldton August 17, 2009
Posted by astroed in Education.Tags: Astronomy, Big Aussie Star Hunt, galileo, Geraldton, national science week, schools, theatre
add a comment
I’ve got a busy week ahead of me. I’m flying over to Geraldton in Western Australia for a series of events as part of National Science Week. Tomorrow I’m giving several talks to students at Nagle Catholic College in the afternoon followed by some professional development for teachers in the region and, hopefully, a viewing night.
The following morning I’ll be up bright and early as I have an on-air lesson about telescopes with students from the Meekatharra School of the Air. After that I drive out a few hours to Yalgoo (the first town in the Outback) where I’ll be taking part in a viewing evening for students from three schools, Yalgoo, Pia Wadjarri and Sandstone, who have come together for a few days for their athletics carnival. I’ll be joined by Megan Argos from Curtin (AstroMeg). We plan on getting the students to take part in the Big Aussie Star Hunt, the national project for Science Week.
On Thursday I’m giving a public talk about the life and work of Galileo at 7.30pm in the Queen Elizabeth Theatre prior to Theatre Eight’s production of Brecht’s The Life of Galileo.
It should be a busy but fun and rewarding week. Hopefully I’ll get some photos and more information up about the various events later.
Brecht’s The Life of Galileo in Geraldton August 13, 2009
Posted by astroed in Astronomy, General.Tags: galileo, Geraldton, national science week, theatre
add a comment
Next week I am in the Mid West region of Western Australia for a series of events supporting National Science Week.
One of these is on Thursday, 20 August at the Queens Park Theatre in Geraldton. The Junior Players of Theatre Eight are presenting Bertolt Brecht’s The Life of Galileo at 8pm. Prior to this at 7.30pm I will be giving a public talk at the theatre about Galileo, discussing his contributions to science, especially physics and astronomy. The play itself runs for the following two nights at 7.30pm with a matinee on at 2pm on the Saturday. Tickets are available for $10 from Queens Park Theatre on 08 9956 6662.
Poster for Theatre Eight's production of The Life of Galileo
