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Children keep making new questions and finding answers in different ways!

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https://v.gd/00ysRg

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Uploaded by EU Space Awareness on 2016-09-16.

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Maybe!!! This is a little girl´s answer!

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Key concepts on Diversity and Gender Balance in Space

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Key concepts on Diversity and Gender Balance in Space

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Key concepts on diversity and gender balance v1   parte 1

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Space is only for excellent students and nerds

Space is a boy kind of thing

Space resources and careers are inaccessible for people with special educational or physical needs

Space topics are too specific and not related to social aspects

Space is for socioeconomically privileged and high income people

Space is for lunatics

Space science and discoveries have no utility in our daily life

Space is irrelevant for helping other people

Space is for people without strong beliefs and values

Space is not important for the sustainability of our own planet

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How to Manage Diversity and Gender Balance through Space

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How to Manage Diversity and Gender Balance through Space

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In this section, we are going to see how to approach both gender balance and diversity in the classroom through space and astronomy.

To start, you can explore below some resources related to the migrant community:

Teaching in racially diverse college classrooms, Harvard

Creating inclusive college classrooms, Centre for research on Learning and Teaching, University of Michigan

MINDSET Project

Diversity & Inclusive Teaching, Vanderbilt University

UNHCR

International Organization for Migration

“i am a migrant” project: a platform where migrants, through sharing their own personal stories challenge the anti-migrant stereotypes and hate speech in politics and society. You can see an example here.

Also, in the Space Awareness project, the team is in the process of developing a toolkit called “The journey of ideas” meant to be a resource for teachers, young children and their families. This toolkit highlights the important contributions from Islamic scientists during the Middle Ages to our modern concepts of space and the Universe. It tells the story of a shared history based on tolerance and respect for other cultures. Thus, we encourage you to pay attention to new developments in the project for further news on the development of the toolkit.
Teachers should be trained to:

Create inclusive activities adapted to a gender and culturally diverse classroom.
Make sure that the activity can be completed by all students.
Consider at which point of an activity the teacher might need to confront potential issues of discrimination and manage it.
Teachers should be prepared to confront situations where students might raise controversial issues.
Teachers should challenge their own racial and cultural biases.
Besides gender balance, and cultural diversity in key science subjects, to integrate people with special education and physical needs is also a goal to foster diversity.

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Key concepts on diversity and gender balance v1   parte 1

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We are constantly learning in formal and informal contexts and communicating messages using our behavior, attitudes, opinions: the images in the textbooks, the examples we give to illustrate a subject, etc. If we always use examples that are more related with the interests of a certain group, gender or culture, we may loose the interest of other pupils. Also be aware of the school context and culture as it influences the educational process.
In the video below three young women go back to school to find out what turns girls away from physics, asking what can be done to improve the situation.

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Teachers TV: KS3/4 Science - Physics - Girls Speak Out

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Three young women go back to school to find out what turns girls away from physics, asking what can be done to improve the situation. By the time they reach A Level, over three times as many boys as girls are taking physics, resulting in under-representation for women in occupations involving science, maths and engineering.

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The Institute of Physics in the UK wants that all students should have a positive experience of physics. The interest of Girls when compared to the interest of Boys for physics is very low. This lack of interest might be because of social and cultural influences that discourage girls from getting involved with a sector that traditionally is considered to be male dominated.

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Teachers TV: KS3/4 Science - Girls in Physics

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In this programme, physics teacher, Barry Berndes demonstrates how he keeps his female students motivated and engaged by following the five golden rules for Girls in Physics. Observing his lesson is Martin Hollins from the Institute of Physics who is keen to see how well the rules work.

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EU Space Awareness Career Interviews: Zita Martins, Astrobiologist // FULL 3 min video

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 Space is a very attractive subject for both girls and boys

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 Space is a very attractive subject for both girls and boys

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ROSE report (2010) highlights that astronomy and space is a very attractive subject for both girls and boys, and that could effectively engage students to science subjects. Space captures the interest and excitement of children, and has the potential to stimulate a broader education.

Space captures the interest and excitement of children, and has the potential to stimulate a broader education.

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Uploaded by EU Space Awareness on 2016-05-05.

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Diversity and Gender Balance in the Classroom

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Diversity and Gender Balance in the Classroom

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Given the prominent role of education in shaping individuals’ future life chances, educational disparities have long been a topic of concern. While men historically held strong advantages in the domain of education, women have reached parity on most educational markers, and have eclipsed men in terms of college attendance and baccalaureate attainment (Buchmann and Diprete, 2006). However, gender disparities remain in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
In particular, according to the Institute of Physics´ report “It’s Different for Girls: The influence of schools” in 2011, physics was the fourth most popular subject for A-level among boys in English schools when for girls the subject reached only the nineteenth place.
Inquiry Based Science Education (IBSE) approach can facilitate the increase of girls’ interest in space-related subjects. It is generally accepted that IBSE is beneficial to promoting girls’ interest and participation in science activities (Rocard report, 2007).
Space sector also suffers from these facts. According to EUROSPACE's recent report (June, 2015), whereas there is an increase in the numbers of sales and employment (+6%), women's participation reaches only the 20% of space industry employees. Therefore, arguably, the access to space careers is also a question of equal opportunities for women.

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Inspiring The Future - Redraw The Balance

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The idea behind Citizen Science is to engage anyone in participating in real scientific projects with a big amount of data and it can be effectively used to foster critical thinking, dealing with uncertainties in data, working with a wide variety of technologies, and meaningful field work. Join Geographer Joseph Kerski as we demonstrate how and why to use citizen science tools and resources, with a particular focus on how these can be used in conjunction with mapping and spatial analysis from local to global scales.

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Collecting, Analyzing, and Mapping your Citizen Science Data

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Apps that you can use in your classes, especially with young students:

Biology: ‘The Human Body’ from Tinybop, and ‘This is my body’ from urbn; pockets where your students can search and learn about the human body.

Engineering: ‘The Everything Machine’ from Tinybop and ‘Crazy gears’ from Edoki Academy.

Space: ‘This is my spacecraft’ from urbn; pockets.

You can see here a repository with ICT tools handpicked by the team of Space Awareness, which you can use with your students straightaway!

Submit your entry below, and see what fellow teacher colleagues from all over the world are using! You can view the results here.

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EU Space // M3 // Citizen Science // Part 3

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Virtual learning environments: collaborative writing, brainstorming, sharing ideas, generate ideas, give feed back, class discussions, note taking, chat, mind mapping, create movings, animations, sharing photos & videos, connect with outside world, ...

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Uploaded by EU Space Awareness on 2016-09-13.

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Using ICT tools in the Science classroom

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Using ICT tools in the Science classroom

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Space sciences embody a unique combination of science, technology and culture and serve as vehicle for capturing the imagination of young people.

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How to Use Technology in Education 💻🎓 (21st century education)

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Know your students.
Start with one simple question and a path to help them find their way.
Student centered approach to help involve all students.
Communication and ground discipline. It isn´t only the product which is important but the process and attitude.

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MOOC1-Module2: Teacher's Interview Part 3

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Orientation: Introduce the topic with questions about how time was measured in the past when there was no electricity not batteries nor sophisticated machines we have now and go back in time till ancient civilizations.

Conceptualization: Make students think and discuss what do they know about solar watches, if they´ve ever seen a real one and where, ...

Investigation: Hands-on they build a simple solar watch and make observations about how it works for a while. They´ll need a long nail, a hammer, a pencil and a sunny day.

Conclusion: Teams discuss if their previous knowledge meets their experience.

Discussion: Show and explain their work process and conclusions to the rest of the class group.

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Proyecto de feria de ciencias

Desde tiempos inmemoriales, los relojes de sol han sido utilizados para indicar la hora, permitiendo que las personas funcionen con un horario. Los antiguos babilonios, egipcios, griegos y mayas fueron algunas de las grandes civilizaciones que comprendieron que la posición del sol en el cielo y las sombras que proyecta podían ser utilizadas para hacer una estimación de la hora del día.

No te pierdas estos artículos relacionados:

Antiguo reloj de sol de Marcianopolis, Museo de Mosaicas, Devnya, Bulgaria. ( Creative Commons)

Muchas de estas civilizaciones, tales como los griegos y los romanos, creían que la tierra estaba fija en el centro del cielo y que el sol orbitaba alrededor de ella, lo que provocaba que se moviera a través del cielo. Ahora sabemos que el movimiento del sol en el cielo es causado por la rotación de la tierra, aunque esto tiene poca importancia cuando se trata de los relojes de sol.

¿Cómo funcionan los relojes de sol?

Por la mañana, una sombra apunta hacia el oeste ya que el sol sale por el este. Gradualmente se va haciendo más corta y avanza hacia el norte. Pasado el mediodía, la sombra apunta hacia el este, alargándose constantemente a medida que el sol se mueve hacia la puesta de sol en el oeste. Un reloj de sol se aprovecha de esto por medio de un dispositivo llamado gnomon para proyectar una sombra, con un dial y marcas que permiten medir el tiempo.

Un reloj de sol también depende de tu posición en la tierra y sólo puede ser utilizado en determinada longitud y latitud. No puedes alejarte de tu latitud y, si bien puedes moverte a lo largo de ella, deberás sumar o restar cuatro minutos por cada grado que te muevas, dependiendo de la dirección.

Cómo hacer un reloj de sol simple

Éste es el reloj de sol más básico y depende del antiguo principio que consiste en colocar un palo en el suelo y utilizar la sombra para saber la hora.

Reloj de sol en el thyme garden del Arboreto Paisajista de Minesota ( Creative Commons)

Necesitarás:

Una tabla de madera plana o cartón fuerte. Lo ideal sería que la superficie esté pintada de blanco. Sino, puedes colocar una hoja de papel encima.

Un clavo largo.

Un martillo.

Un lápiz.

Un día soleado.

Para hacer tu reloj de sol

1. A primera hora de la mañana, coloca la tabla sobre una superficie plana en un lugar que reciba sol todo el día.

2. Asegúrate que la tabla no se mueva colocando un par de piedras para hacer peso si el clima es ventoso.

3. Martilla el clavo lo más cerca del centro del tablero como sea posible. No es necesario clavarlo tan adentro, sólo lo suficiente para asegurarte que sea resistente.

4. Cuando la sombra de la cabeza del clavo caiga en la superficie, realiza una marca. Lo ideal sería hacerlo al comienzo de la hora: a las seis, a las siete y así sucesivamente.

5. Cada media hora o cada hora, repite el proceso y continúa hasta el atardecer.

6. Sin mover la tabla, utiliza la regla para dibujar una línea que conecte las marcas al clavo en el centro.

7. Ahora puedes saber la hora en tu longitud y latitud.

Problemas para hacer un reloj de sol

Si controlas tu reloj de sol en el transcurso del año te darás cuenta de que no coincide exactamente con la hora. ¿Por qué?

Muchas partes del mundo utilizan horario de verano. Por eso, tendrás que volver a calibrar tu reloj de sol dos veces al año.

Por cada grado que vivas lejos de tu meridiano local, el tiempo variará. Por cada grado al este, agrega cuatro minutos. Por cada grado al oeste, resta cuatro minutos. Un grado de latitud es de aproximadamente 69 millas o 100 kilómetros, lo que te ayudará a tomar en cuenta esta variación.

Por ejemplo, Penzance queda alrededor de 5,5 grados al oeste de Greenwich. Si es mediodía en Greenwich, ¿qué hora es en Penzance?

Para solucionar esto:

5,5 x 4 = 22 minutos.

Penzance está al oeste, lo que significa que el mediodía llega más tarde.

12:00 - 22 minutos = 11:38 de la mañana.

Si son las 18:00 hs. en Los Angeles (118,25 grados al oeste), ¿qué hora es en Nueva York (74 grados al oeste)?

74 - 118,25 = 44,25.

Multiplica esto por 4 y obtienes 177 minutos.

18:00 + 177 minutos = 20:57 de la noche.

De acuerdo con las zonas horarias, NY está clasificada como 3 horas adelante de LA, así que ésta es una buena aproximación.

Realiza un reloj de sol y posiciónalo

Reloj de sol en Moot Hall (dominio público)

Si deseas mover tu reloj de sol, debes tener mucho cuidado al reposicionarlo y debes asegurarte que apunte hacia el norte (o al sur en el hemisferio sur). No puedes usar una brújula porque ésta apunta hacia el polo magnético, que está en un lugar muy diferente del norte.

Una forma es utilizar la estrella Polaris para configurar el reloj de sol en la noche, lo que te asegurará de sea exacto durante el día. Sino, compra un mapa con líneas de cuadrícula verdaderas, lo que te permitirá utilizar puntos de referencia para posicionar tu reloj de sol.

Algunas personas pueden desear hacer un reloj de sol con un dial circular, donde los marcadores que muestran cómo caen las sombras sean de la misma longitud. Esto es muy fácil pero exige un poco de planificación, ya que debes ajustar el gnomon en un ángulo. Para esto, podrías hacer un triángulo fuerte con un sorbete de refresco o utilizar madera. Hay muchas maneras de lograr este objetivo.

Consulta la latitud de tu ubicación con un mapa o con herramientas de Internet.

Con un transportador, establece el gnomon a exactamente el mismo ángulo del horizontal y apunta hacia el polo celeste.

Esto te permitirá crear un dial circular para tu reloj de sol de la misma manera que para el reloj de sol común.

Con suerte, esto te habrá ayudado a construir tu propio reloj de sol o por lo menos te habrá dado algunas ideas para aprender a utilizar el sol para saber la hora. Obviamente, hay mucho más para aprender, por ejemplo, la Ecuación de Tiempo y, debido a que estos dispositivos existen hace miles de años, existe una gran variedad de clases. Algunos de los enlaces que siguen a continuación te ayudarán a explorar un poco más:
Relojes de Sol en Wikipedia Relojes de sol
NASA

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Cómo crear un reloj de sol - Proyecto de feria de ciencias

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Desde tiempos inmemoriales, los relojes de sol han sido utilizados para indicar la hora, permitiendo que las personas funcionen con un horario. Los antiguos babilonios, egipcios, griegos y mayas fueron algunas de las grandes civilizaciones que comprendieron que la posición del sol en el cielo y las sombras que proyecta podían ser utilizadas para hacer una estimación de la hora del día.

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Simulating scientist´s work.
Encourage student´s to ask questions, make assumptions, take initiative, engage in hands-on and mind-on activities.
Steps:
Orientation: Stimulate curiosity and interest, discussion, demonstration, video, ...
Conceptualization: Links with previous knowledge, understand concepts
Investigation: research, experiment, collect data,
Conclusion: draw conclusions,
go back to hypothesis and compare with conclusion.
Discussion: Communicate results.

INVOLVE STUDENTS IN EVERY SINGLE PHASE-BOTH TEACHERS AND STUDENTS COLLABORATE AND LEARN.

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MOOC1-Module2: Part3 - Building inquiry activities for your class

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When working with inquiry in class, we simulate scientists’ work. Turning lecture into discussion.Ask questions without giving answers, let students find out

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When I introduce a topic I like using KWW schedule to get to what pupils know, want to know about the topic and what they´ve learnt at the end. I don´t like acting when we do a play (and we do a lot), I normally stay behind the stage helping them be stars, the same I normally do in my classroom.
Not all hands-on activities are enquiries, yes I know! When doing a hands-on activity I tend to be more active talking and guiding as the type of activity used in the classroom are quite completely guided, so it isn´t really inquiry.
Lecturing is not the type of lessons to work with little children (7) so I do a lot of assemblies where I talk and they talk, then they work on different corners and all type of activities depending on the topic. Lecturing is not the the type they like most nor it is most beneficial for them.
"Tell me and I forget,
Show me and I remember,
Involve me and I understand".
My reaction to wrong answers has changed through my years of teaching, at first I only saw mistakes, then I started seeing opportunities for learning. Now I let my students make mistakes till they find the correct answer, sometimes they need some help to do so, it´s frustrating for them when it takes too much time and effort to find.
I normally ask them to revise and make sure everything´s fine, then check with a class mate or help them realize what´s wrong and try to encourage them to keep learning.
Focus on contents or skills? I have both in mind when preparing the lessons but I consider skills more important.

My test result:
"Student-centered approach

You follow what we would call a student-centered approach. Your classes are based on discussion with your students and they have several degrees of freedom when it comes to hands-on activities. You focus heavily on developing your students’ skills but you also make sure you cover some specific content. "

Building inquiry activities that take little time is the most challenging for me because it takes a long time to get prepare them, some children finish very quickly, they have different interests and need to prepare different options,we don´t have all the materials and necessary equipment at school, and 7 year old children need a lot of guidance in most of them.

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Involve students into the learning process.  It is a student-centered pedagogical approach which focuses are on active involvement of students in the learning process instead of considering them as passive receivers of information.

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MOOC1-Module2: Part1 - What is inquiry based learning?

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How inspirational the subject can be! Media, movies, or books! Space is an inexhaustable resource for the imagination. It can trigger awe, curiosity, and desire for learning. This is what makes space sciences a unique tool for education.
Space is linked to everyday life in multiple ways and the theme of Space transcends scientific disciplines and goes beyond cultures.
I would use a story for my 7 years old pupils to learn the necessary language and Science concepts. Sing a song that implies moving like the Earth would make them understand rotation and translation and it´s PE and Music. Building a planetary using balloons, glue and paper to make planet mobiles in Art.

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Uploaded by EU Space Awareness on 2016-09-01.

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Explore the most recent discoveries in Space Sciences and Technology through the Space Scoop website. Space Scoop is a space news service for children aged 8 and above. By sharing exciting new discoveries, we can inspire children to develop an interest in science and technology. Space Scoop makes a wonderful tool that can be used in the classroom to teach and discuss the latest news from space science and astronomy. Check the kids' website at www.spacescoop.org
My pupils are under 8, but I think I could adapt storytelling from the Scoop website, they love Space and they love stories

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Brief description: Use Space Scoop astronomy news stories for children as the basis for a creative writing and drawing activity.

Keywords: Space Scoop, storytelling, drawing, literacy, art, creative, journalism

Time: 2-3 hours

Level: Primary school

Age: 8+

Materials needed: Multiple copies of several Space Scoop releases (available at www.eu-unawe.org/kids), crayons, a pen and paper (or a computer)

Learning objectives: Getting familiar with astronomy and science journalism and improving creative thinking, literacy and teamwork skills.

Background information: While professional astronomers strive to further our understanding of the Universe, science communicators are doing an equally important job: sharing this new knowledge with the public. Astronomy communication is especially important for children, where the aim of highlighting exciting new discoveries is to inspire them to develop an interest in science and technology.
Full description of activity:
EU Universe Awareness (EU-UNAWE) has created an astronomy news service for young children, called Space Scoop (www.eu-unawe.org/kids). The idea behind Space Scoop is to change how astronomy and space sciences are often presented to young children as historical subjects. By sharing exciting new astronomical discoveries with them, we aim to inspire them to develop an interest in science and technology.

In addition to being a fantastic resource to introduce young children to the world of science, Space Scoop can also be used as reference material by teachers for developing lessons in creative writing and drawing.

Step 1: Print out lots of different Space Scoop releases. Divide the children into groups in different parts of the classroom and distribute the articles so that the children only see the Space Scoop that they are working on.

Step 2: Tell the children to imagine that they are in a spaceship (they can be human or alien) and that they can see the astronomical object(s) or event mentioned in the Space Scoop release.

Step 3: Ask them to write a description of the object(s) or event in the form of an eyewitness account. Emphasise the need to use lots of adjectives.

Alternative: Ask the children to re-tell the Space Scoop in the form of a poem.

Step 4: Tell the children to swap their stories with someone from a different group. Then ask them to draw a picture of the astronomical object or event described by their classmate. The drawing must be based solely on the eyewitness account and not on the original Space Scoop.

Step 5: Ask the children to pair up with the person that they swapped their story with. Are the drawings similar to what the storytellers had imagined the objects or event would look like when writing their eyewitness accounts (or if they are similar to the picture used in the Space Scoop)? If they are different, ask them to try to figure out why. Could the storyteller have included more description to help the reader? Or is this astronomical object or event so strange and bizarre that there are many possible ideas for what it may look like, all of which are equally right? Do professional astronomers even know how it reallylooks?
Credit:
Share:

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Brief description: Use Space Scoop astronomy news stories for children as the basis for a creative writing and drawing activity. Keywords: Space Scoop, storytelling, drawing, literacy, art, creative, journalism Time: 2-3 hours Level: Primary school Age: 8+ Materials needed: Multiple copies of several Space Scoop releases (available at www.eu-unawe.org/kids), crayons, a pen and paper (or a computer) Learning objectives: Getting familiar with astronomy and science journalism and improving creative thinking, literacy and teamwork skills.

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Space is not just a topic that can help us engage students in complicated laws of physics, abstract chemical reactions or complex biological developments. Space topics can and should be used already at a young age to engage children in everything from history to literature to politics.
Why start young with space education? There are both economic and social reasons for space education in early childhood:
- Use of excitement caused by Space to attract young people into Science and Technology.
- The Universe can give a sense of perspective and stimulate tolerance, stimulate European and global citizenship: seeing our planet Earth as a small blue dot in Space will be a marvelous antidote  to fanatic nationalism and extremisms of avery sort. From Space the Earth has no nation borders.
From what age can a student understand space related subjects? Can we expect kindergarten children to grasp astronomical topics in a way that will have a meaningful impact on their development? Is there a starting point where you can start teaching space? Will the student be too young to learn, or to get motivated?

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Too Young to Learn?

The educational programme Universe Awareness is aimed at children as young as four years old. But can we expect infants to grasp astronomical topics in a way that will have a meaningful impact on their development? To investigate this important issue, here we present an overview of research into children's cognitive development.

Like any devoted parent, Professor George Miley, from Leiden University, took a keen interest in his children's education and volunteered to give talks about astronomy in their primary school. "It was marvellous to see how very young kids became excited when I showed them Hubble pictures and told them about the strange objects in our Universe," says Miley. In part inspired by his own experiences of introducing astronomy to young children, Miley founded the astronomy education programme Universe Awareness (UNAWE) in 2006. It has a target audience of 4-10 year old children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds. But was he right to focus UNAWE's efforts solely on young children?

To answer these questions, we first need to understand the way in which children acquire scientific knowledge. Some development psychologists have hypothesised that young children form naïve theories about the Earth based on what they witness: The world around them appears flat and objects need a surface to stand on, therefore the Earth is flat and supported [1,2]. Proponents of this hypothesis, such as Stella Vosniadou and William Brewer, say that counter-intuitive scientific theories are difficult for young children to accept and that the role of educators is to challenge these naïve theories. They argue that scientific explanations about how the Universe works can only be introduced at a later stage of a child's education (around 10 years old), once they become aware that their naïve theories are wrong.

However, there is a growing body of work that disputes this hypothesis, claiming that children are "theory neutral". In these studies, development psychologists argue that children build-up a picture of the Earth in a fragmented fashion and there are no strong intuitions and misconceptions to overcome [3,4,5]. Therefore, children can gradually learn and accept scientific explanations of the world around them from a young age.

One of the proponents of the fragmented model, Dr Georgia Panagiotaki, a lecturer in Developmental Psychology at the University of East Anglia in the UK, says that children as young as four years old are able to understand basic scientific ideas. "Even though children are often not able to explain their ideas in great detail, scientific information and facts can be present from early on," Panagiotaki told UNAWE. "And children benefit enormously for appropriate instruction and educational activities aimed at teaching them basic facts."
Discovering age
Panagiotaki's conclusions are supported by research [6] conducted at the University of California, Berkeley. Professor of psychology Alison Gopnik found that young children actually think in the way scientists do, testing hypotheses against data and making causal inferences. They learn from statistics and informal experimentation, and from watching and listening to others, according to her publication in Science. This supports UNAWE's view that an early age is a perfect time for children to get in touch with science for the first time. Additionally, Gopnik's research shows that encouraging play and letting children search for explanations themselves, rather than solely explain things, incites scientific thinking. UNAWE's efforts to develop educational activities, in which children learn about the universe by means of exercises, are backed up by these findings.
An equal start in life
While the debate on this topic continues, away from the scientific arena, many charitable organisations have highlighted the importance of educating young children from disadvantaged backgrounds. UNICEF's Programming Experiences in Early Child Development 2006 report, for example, states that educating disadvantaged children in their earliest years offers the best opportunity to give them an equal start in life. "[This is] when children's brains are developing most rapidly, and the basis for their cognitive, social and emotional development is being formed," the report states.

However, early childhood care and education is often the responsibility of parents, and many families in underprivileged environment are not in a position to offer as much to their children as wealthier parents. "I regarded disadvantaged kids as the most important group for UNAWE to target, because they are least likely to be exposed to the excitement of astronomy," says Miley.

The High/Scope Perry Preschool Program (HSPP) is a much-cited example for what investing in the education of young, disadvantaged children can achieve in the long-term. Beginning in the 1960's, HSPP randomly divided 123 disadvantaged African-American children aged between 3 to 4 years old into a group that received a pre-school programme and a control group that received no intervention. HSPP maintained contact with the study's participants every year until the age of 11, and then conducted follow-up interviews at ages 14, 15, 19, 27 and 40.

In 2005, a study of 97% of the participants (then aged 40) revealed that those who had taken part in the pre-school programme achieved greater success in life than the control group, such as higher rates of graduation, better paid jobs and fewer criminal records [7]. "This report substantially bolsters the case for early interventions in disadvantaged populations," economist James Heckman, from the University of Chicago, said in a HSPP press release.

Yet, despite the greater successes in later life of the children in the HSPP pre-school group, these children didn't achieve higher IQ scores than the control group when they were tested at the age of 10. Those in the pre-school group, however, did achieve bigger successes in life, because they had improved noncognitive abilities, such as motivation and perseverance [8].

A further conclusion of the study was that the programme had also been an economic investment for society [11]. In constant 2000 US dollars, $15,166 had been spent on each participant in the pre-school programme, but the economic return to the general public was calculated to be an astounding $195,621 per individual - that's a $12.90 return per dollar invested. The vast majority of this pot of money (88%) was calculated to be the amount saved from a reduction in crime levels in the pre-school group.

According to Heckman, who has reviewed a large body of research into economics and development psychology, the rate of return would have been lower if the investment in education was instead made when the disadvantaged children were older. ( Figure 1 [12] plots Heckman's relationship between age of intervention and the benefit-to-cost ratio of an educational programme.) Heckman's work shows that investing in education in a child's earliest years is not only worthwhile, but also the best time to intervene.
Figure 1. Rates of return to human capital investment in disadvantaged children. Credit: Science Magazine / Heckman
However, while investing in educating young children is important, programmes like UNAWE need to be backed up with continued interventions at secondary school age, says Professor Susan Gelman, who researches child cognitive development at the University of Michigan. "Although I strongly endorse investing in primary education, I also believe in continued interventions, into and including secondary school," Gelman told UNAWE. "Education is not a single experience but rather a continuing process."
Crucial age
Education for young children comes at a crucial age, like the HSPP shows. Neuroscientist Martha Farah of the University of Pennsylvania reaches the same conclusion by looking at the development of children's brains. In her research [9], she shows that the 4-year old brain is extremely vulnerable to its environment. If children of this age grow up in an educational environment, including books and educational toys, their brain is affected in a significantly positive way. The researchers conclude that the thickness of two regions in the cortex is enhanced by such stimulating surroundings. At age 8, the impact on the brain is already much smaller. This shows that young kids in developing countries, living in less supportive environments, greatly benefit from UNAWE's programme. They learn about the universe, but the side effect is in this case perhaps even more important: by getting in touch with educational material, they develop their brains.
Creativity
Besides providing an environment for underprivileged children to develop their brains, UNAWE's program allows children from all societies to increase their creative thinking abilities by learning about the universe. Research from Nira Liberman [10], professor in social psychology at Tel Aviv University, shows that learning about distant objects promotes more abstract thought. When visualizing proximal objects, individuals tend to use concrete and detailed images, while picturing an object in a more abstract, decontextualized way when thinking about distal objects - either temporally distant (in the far future), hypothetically distant (unlikely), or spatially distant (actually far away). In astronomy, one often deals with these kinds of distal objects, especially the latter. Liberman found that after priming of spatial distance - compared with priming of spatial proximity - children are more creative in both fluency and originality. With her findings, she confirms previous theories, which state that psychological distance promotes abstract thought, which, in turn, promotes creativity.
Culture clash
UNAWE is a global programme that is active in 46 countries worldwide, so it is also important to note the impact that local cultures play in educating young children. In a background paper for the UNESCO Education For All Global Monitoring Report 2007, Arnold et al. claim that education programmes that aren't responsive to local cultures will suffer from lower levels of enrolment and retention [13]. The researchers argue that education programmes that are at odds with local cultures can be viewed by parents as having a damaging effect on the welfare of their children. UNAWE recognises the importance of considering local cultures and uses local experts to take charge of implementing its activities in each partner country, who understand the local cultural needs and histories.

Furthermore, astronomy has played an integral part in local cultures throughout history. Indeed, some of the misconceptions that children have about astronomy come from local cultural beliefs. For example, a recent study found that a large proportion of young Indian children think the Earth floats on water, which stems from indigenous Indian astronomy [14]. Therefore, knowledge about local cultures can also bring new insights into how children view the Universe.
Conclusion
There's no denying that educating young children about astronomy is challenging - especially in a global project that needs to consider many different local cultures. However, much of the current literature into children's cognitive development indicates that a project like UNAWE will be greatly beneficial to the youngsters that it reaches. Time and time again, a child's early years are shown to be the most crucial in determining their future prospects.

It will take many years before we can formally evaluate the impact of UNAWE. But in the meantime, it's important to remember why Miley founded UNAWE in the first place: he was inspired by the smiling faces of children, who sat captivated as they listened to him tell stories about our Universe.
References
[1] Vosniadou, 1994, Capturing and Modelling the Process of Conceptual Change

[2] Vosniadou & Brewer 1994, Mental Models of the Day/Night Cycle

[3] Nobes et al, 2003, Children's understanding of the earth in a multicultural community: mental models or fragments of knowledge?

[4] Michael Siegal, Gavin Nobes and Georgia Panagiotaki, Nature Geoscience, Vol4, March 2011, Children's understanding of the earth in a multicultural community: mental models or fragments of knowledge

[5] Panagiotaki, Nobes, & Patton, 2008, Mental models and other misconceptions in children's understanding of the earth

[6] Gopnik, September 2012, Scientific Thinking in Young Children: Theoretical Advances, Empirical Research, and Policy Implications

[7] Schweinhart et al., 2005, Lifetime Effects: The HighScope Perry Preschool Study Through Age 40

[8] Heckman, Moon, Pinto, Savelyev & Yavitz, 2008, The rate of return to the Perry Preschool program

[9] Farah, 2012, Books trim the brain

[10] Liberman, Polack, Hameiri, Blumenfeld, 2012, Priming of spatial distance enhances children's creative performance

[11] Schweinhart, Montie, Xiang, Barnett, Belfield & Nores, 2005, The High/Scope Perry Preschool Study Through Age 40: Summary, Conclusions, and Frequently Asked Questions

[12] Heckman, Science, Vol 312, June 2006, Skill Formation and the Economics of Investing in Disadvantaged Children

[13] Arnold, Bartlett, Gowani & Merali, 2006, Is everybody ready? Readiness, transition and continuity: lessons, reflections and moving forward

[14] Samarapungavan, Vosniadou & Brewer, 1998, Mental Models of the Earth, Sun and Moon: Indian Children's Cosmologies

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The educational programme Universe Awareness is aimed at children as young as four years old. But can we expect infants to grasp astronomical topics in a way that will have a meaningful impact on their development? To investigate this important issue, here we present an overview of research into children's cognitive development.

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As a foreign language and Primary teacher, I haven´t got much experience nor knowledge about how to introduce Space and Astronomy to children. I have done some songs and  models, but I need to know more to be able to make the most of their interest and fascination about Space.
Space sciences embody a unique combination of science, technology and culture and serve as vehicle for capturing the imagination of young people.
Based on this, Space can be used to teach any STEM related subject and to drive and inspire young people in their career choices.
Prof. George Miley, Astronomer from Leiden University, the Netherlands, EU Space Awareness Co-coordinator and Universe Awareness Founder:
1. Dealing with space is dealing with fundamental science.
2. Exploration of Space needs very sofisticated technology.
3. Reaches into our deepest cultural roots.
Space Science is an inspiration for Physics, Chemistry , Biology,...
Satellites are powerful tools to study  things like climate change.

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UL // MOOC1 Module 1 George Miley Part 2

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Uploaded by EU Space Awareness on 2016-08-31.

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Guidelines to manage diversity and gender balance in the classroom through Space 

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Guidelines to manage diversity and gender balance in the classroom through Space 

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I do actively challenge stereotypes, target parents and adopt participatory design approaches, but I need to improve:

1. Actively target girls, but design for boys and girls

2. Address women's invisibilty in science, and highlight important  women scientists

3. Promote "mentors" and provide "role models"

4. Mirror your own gender equity and of your own institution

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I work at CEIP Juan del Río Ayala in Santa Brígida, Gran Canaria, Spain. It´s quite a big Primary school in a  nice environment.
I teach the same group as last year, 18 lovely children aged 7, eager to learn by doing and very physically active. I miss having more technology in the classroom, I only have my own notebook, a projector and there´s no Internet most of the times, but we can use the Computer Lab when available.

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I work as a primary teachers, I actually teach 2nd graders this year and teach them most Primary subjects. Space and Astronomy is the first topic to work in my classroom as soon as school starts next Friday.
So I have high expectations from a course created by the Space Awareness team with the support of the European Schoolnet Academy.
I just hope I can use whatever I learn with my young learners.
I have already an account on Learning Designer as it my second course at the European Schoolnet Teacher´s Academy.