Astronomy@MyPC
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| FULL DESCRIPTION OF TRAINING CONTENTS | ||
| Preparation | NUCLIO will previously prepare a page with all the relevant information related to the training event such as: course description, detailed programme and travel guidance. Participants should be capable of attending sessions in English. All participants will be invited to bring their own computers. A complete digital package with all the needed material will be made available to participants. Participants will be invited to prepare ideas for lesson plans targeting the areas of expertise related to Modern Astronomy topics. The main idea is to help participants create good scenarios for the introduction of such topics within their national curricula. By the end of the training they will bring home an improved scenario composed by a well structure lesson plan including several of the newly acquired knowledge and techniques. | |
| Objectives | This training program invests in ICT for science teaching using the inquiry based methodology. The main objective of this programme is to introduce educators in the use of new methodologies for science teaching. Themes are based in the use of modern tools and resources that rely on recent advances of science. This training event was prepared for an adult audience with interest in new methodologies to address science and science related topics using as a guideline real research examples, namely in the field of Astronomy and Space Research. The advent of free science content on the web opened a whole new area for science education. Students can now learn mathematics, physics, geography, chemistry and other subjects while using real astronomy and space data, available for free on the internet. Participants will be introduced to an efficiently and well tested methodology that relies on the use of such resources to tackle school curriculum content.. The methodology is based in an IBSE approach and range from the manipulation of databases to the construction of observing devices using readily available material. This training curriculum can also be used as a tool to bridge the digital divide enabling a graceful transition from paper technology to digital format. The material was carefully chosen for their flexibility to be applied in different levels of difficulty and age. | |
| Methodology | The selected activities are all well tested interactive activities exploring the Inquiry Based Science Education approach. The methodology in this training event is to reproduce with participants the activities as they should be implemented in classroom exploring all possibilities and proposing a methodology for their use. The selection was carefully studied to enable educators to address modern topics of Astronomy while targeting important Physics and Math concepts. The construction of the programme drives the user from basic astronomy and its consequences to our daily lives, for instance the understanding of celestial motion and the sequence of days and nights, seasons etc., moving forward to more advanced phenomena and our present understanding of the cosmos such as stars and their spectra or the age of the Universe. The training event is composed of lectures, practical hands-on activities and telescope observing sessions. The team of educators for this training event was carefully selected to address the different topics in a deep but also pedagogical approach. The design of the programme includes lectures followed by theoretical practical sessions and practical sessions where the participants will be immerse in the methodological scenario we are hereby teaching. Participants will have the opportunity to experiment: – Continuous evaluation of students throughout the flow of the lesson. – Promotion of IBSE while using free tools and resources (available on the web) and adapted to the curricula in several countries. – Promotion of real research in classroom while addressing curriculum content. Participants will have the opportunity to evaluate the training sessions, the trainers and the afterward usage and applicability of the resource. Daily discussions will be promoted to assess the tools, their prospects and the used methodology. – The activities selected for this training event are all ICT based. |
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| Follow-up | The construction of a large support network for science educators is in the core of these group activities. All participants will be invited to actively participate in our already existing and active social networks and forums and, to exchange their experiences and successes via our website or periodical newsletter. Participants will have follow-up support from trainers and other science educators already trained in similar venues around the globe. All participants will be encouraged to implement the resources in the classroom and becoming therefore Galileo Teachers. Further development can be achieved by educators that master some of the resources and promote teacher training in their schools. Those will achieve the status of Galileo Ambassador and will thus reinforce our support network.Campaigns and contests incentivizing the use of the learned resources are regularly promoted by GTTP. All participants will be invited to create their own online portfolio with the material acquired in the training. They will have access to other participant’s portfolios and the possibility to interact with other participants. They will also be trained in the assessment of their pulpils by using pre and post validation methodology. | |
| PROGRAMME OF THE TRAINING ACTIVITIES (DAY BY DAY) | |||||||||
| Day 1 – Earth, Sun and Moon (8 hours) Program presentation Participants presentation Lecture:The Sun Practical Activities: Studying the Sun with Sun4all – Learning science with the image archives of the Astronomical Observatory of Coimbra Methodologies for science teaching and repositories Introduction to Inquiry Based Science Education Educational portals and repositories Daily evaluation and discussion Cookies and Wine Party (Participants should bring something typical from their country) Night sky observing sessionDay 2 – The Solar System and its exploration Lecture: An introduction to the Solar System Practical Activities How to promote Inquiry based learning using Planetaria Software: – Stellarium – Planning a night sky observing session, understanding the phases of the moon, eclipses, – Celestia – Simulating a space mission, sharing your missions and adapting it to your lessons, – World Wide Telescope – Using science repositories of images to teach science, creating tours The international asteroid search collaboration Daily evaluation and discussionDay 3 – Stars (8 hours) Lecture: Life Cycle of Stars Practical session: Observing with robotic telescopes – The RGB Universe Image processing with Salsa J Image processing with Gimp Spectra J Daily evaluation and discussion Day 4 – The Universe (8 hours) Daily evaluation and discussion Day 5 – Visit to an ancient astronomical site |
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