George identifies some of the fascinating and multi-disciplinary elements of space & astronomy that we can use to engage our students. Have you used any of the elements or themes mentioned by George in your teaching? Do you talk about space & astronomy in your classroom? To get us started, reflect a bit about where in your own teaching practice you have already used Space Sciences & Astronomy themes? Share your reflections in the Padlet below. In case you have never covered or included space-related aspects in any of your teaching, think about how you could integrate space themes in your curriculum or how these themes could be used to engage students in other topics you are teaching. This could be quite concretely when exploring a certain law of physics or it could be more generally as a thematic backdrop to a project. Share your thoughts in the Padlet below./Image Credit: NASA/Swift Science Team/Stefan Immler

Go through the different discoveries and think about which one you could use in your classroom. Is there one that stands out for you to be especially effective in engaging your students? Why? How could you use it as a teaching material? Share your reflections in the Padlet below./Credit: NASA's Curiosity rover.

http://www.spacescoop.org/pt/

This course is purposefully directed at both primary and secondary teachers because 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.

So the fundamental question Prof George Miley addresses to you in this video is - why start young with space education? He points out both economic and social reasons for space education in early childhood, and gives an overview of Space Awareness activities, which can help educators to attract young people into science, and technology, and stimulate European and global citizenship.

You have now been introduced to space sciences and technologies and you can probably grasp better the importance of space and how inspirational the subject can be. Think about media, movies, or books. Space is an inexhaustable resource for the imagination. It can trigger awe, curiocity, and desire for learning. This is what makes space sciences a unique tool for education. So let's look at this in more detail and explore some more concrete ideas why and how space can be used in our classrooms.

In the two videos below, Audrey Korczynska., Iris Nijman and Wouter Schier of the Astronomy and Society group at Leiden University, who have been developing and running teacher trainings and kid’s workshops about astronomy for a long time, take George Miley's ideas a bit further and share some concrete ideas on how we can use space sciences in our classrooms. You will see that space is linked to everyday life in multiple ways and the theme of Space transcends scientific disciplines and goes beyond cultures. It is a promising area for the future, and an excellent entry point to introduce science careers.

So after listening to all these experiences and ideas, we would like you to take your thinking a step further from Activity 1 and 2 and think about the cross-curricular nature of space topics. Can you identify points of contact between how you are or plan to use space & astronomy topics and other subjects in your countries’ curricula? Could you establish a link to another subject for a joint project? For example, as a Physics teacher when exploring the concepts of gravitational force and orbits using the example of a moon landing, you could cooperate with a colleague teaching history who explores the importance of the first moon landing during the Cold War. Share your ideas in the Padlet below./Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

Now that we have a first brief idea about what inquiry is, and which are some of its basic characteristics, it’s time for a little reflection. Have a look at the following animation and think about which of these characteristics are already part of your teaching style and to what degree.

Your teaching style is towards a student-centered approach. Your classes include both lecturing and discussion. During activities, students have several degrees of freedom and you try to cover both content and the development of students’ skills.

So where do you start from? How do we switch from a teacher-centred class to a student-centred class? In fact it’s not just the teacher that needs to rethink his/her teaching style, students will also have to change their learning style and turn from passive receivers to active learners.

The following animation presents four simple steps you can take to facilitate your students in achieving that.

 

Let's now go a step further and see what a template for building inquiry activities looks like. In the video below, we present the Space Awareness template for designing inquiry activities.

In order to successfully bring inquiry into the science classroom, one of the main challenges is to achieve turning a traditional and otherwise relatively boring teaching subject into a fun inquiry experience for the students. Think of a traditional learning theme and try to change it into a fun inquiry activity.

Here are some examples: 

Traditional Learning | Inquiry Activities
Learning about analogies in mathematics | Simulating craters on the Moon and measuring their width.
Learning about blood type in biology | Students become detectives and try to solve a crime
Learn about atomic structure in chemistry | Build a museum exhibition about the different atomics theories throughout the ages

 

Type the theme you selected in the Padlet below. Describe with a sentence or two, what would you add in each of the inquiry steps you saw in the video above (Orientation, Conceptualization, Investigation, Conlusion, Discussion) for the theme you selected.

Your teaching style is towards a student-centered approach. Your classes include both lecturing and discussion. During activities, students have several degrees of freedom and you try to cover both content and the development of students’ skills.

Doing inquiry can be quite intimidating for a new teacher. Have a look at the interview below to get an idea of what teachers think about this way of teaching. Fatiha Baki shares with us her experience from teaching her students using inquiry.

In the following video Fatiha talks about her first experience with inquiry and how her students reacted to her change of teaching style.

Please note again that there is no "Back Button" in this activity so once you have selected an option you cannot go back. However, you can always start the activity again by simply reloading the page. You can also see all the different questions and answer options for the self-reflection activity in this table.

You wish to follow a student-centered approach. You prefer your classes to be based on discussion with your students. You would be comfortable with giving your students several degrees of freedom when it comes to hands-on activities. You wish to focus more heavily on developing your students’ skills while making sure you cover some specific content. 

Let's now go a step further and see what a template for building inquiry activities looks like. In the video below, we present the Space Awareness template for designing inquiry activities.

In order to successfully bring inquiry into the science classroom, one of the main challenges is to achieve turning a traditional and otherwise relatively boring teaching subject into a fun inquiry experience for the students. Think of a traditional learning theme and try to change it into a fun inquiry activity.

Here are some examples: 

Traditional Learning | Inquiry Activities
Learning about analogies in mathematics | Simulating craters on the Moon and measuring their width.
Learning about blood type in biology | Students become detectives and try to solve a crime
Learn about atomic structure in chemistry | Build a museum exhibition about the different atomics theories throughout the ages

 

Type the theme you selected in the Padlet below. Describe with a sentence or two, what would you add in each of the inquiry steps you saw in the video above (Orientation, Conceptualization, Investigation, Conlusion, Discussion) for the theme you selected.

3.1 Introduction to the use of technology in the classroomWe will start with a general introduction into what role technology plays in 21st century education. Have a look at this video from Pear Tree Education in which Paul Romani provides an overview of how technology should be used in 21st century education, focusing in particular on misconceptions of its use but also meaningful ways in which this can be turned around.

In this section, we will look more closely at what kind of technology we can use when teaching about Space and Astronomy. Specifically, we will explore the concept of Citizen Science.

Let’s start first with a basic understanding of what Citizen Science is. In this first video of the series, Audrey Korczynska. from the Astronomy and Society Group at Leiden University sets the ground for this concept.

Hi! Thanks for collaborating in analyzing light pollution georreferencing nigth pictures taken from ISS

Night cities Tutorial

The application is really simple, you only need to know about a city and help us to identify some features over it. It loads a photo from International Space Station.

On the left you have the ISS image, and a reference map on the right. If you don't know about the city, just cklick on "I don't know" button. If there is some proble with the image and this is not loaded, then click on "No photo". If you know about the city appears in the image you can make your job.

You can make zoom in, zoom out to take a better view of it. Also you can rotate it to take a better orientation, pressing Shift+left button of the mouse. When you identify a known feture, click over it. A yellow circle will appear on it and the XY coordinates will appear on the right table. Now navigate to the right map and identify this feature over it. When you click, the Lon Lat will appear on the right table.
You can select many feature as you know. If you want to remove any of them, just select it and press the "Remove" button.

When you finish, click on the "Save" button

You have a video tutorial to see the complete process in the next window

As we’ve seen previously, technology should actually be an aid and should fit with the objectives of the class and not be an end in itself. That’s easy said, but sometimes regardless of what subject you are teaching, it can be prove quite tricky to introduce ICT in your lessons. 

When bringing technology in the classroom, you have to take into consideration several aspects from internet safety to online ethics, to how to efficiently use the tech tools at your disposal to wondering if mobile phones should even be allowed! 

Maybe the views of a fellow teacher who has faced these same questions will help! Ana Hoskins, Math teacher and expert on ICT shares from her experience on using ICT in her classroom and her views on technology in education.
Furthermore, Ana also shares some of her favourite apps that you can use in your classes, especially with young students:

If you are unsure about what ICT tools to use in teaching with Space and Astronomy, fear no more! You can see here a repository with ICT tools handpicked by the team of Space Awareness, which you can use with your students straightaway! 

Do you know any good apps and ICT tools to use for teaching with Space and Astronomy and you didn’t find them in the repository above? Submit your entry below, and see what fellow teacher colleagues from all over the world are using! You can view the results here.  

Module 1: Why Space and Space Careers?

Module 2: Working with Inquiry in the Science Classroom

Module 3: Use of ICT tools in the Science Classroom

Module 4: How to Manage Diversity and Gender Balance in the Classroom

Module 5: How to introduce space careers to your students

3.5 Webinar       PLEASE SEE BELOW A RECORDING

OF THE WEBINAR THAT TOOK PLACE ON 20th SEPTEMBER WITH THE THEME CITIZEN SCIENCE ACTIVITIES FOR EDUCATION PRESENTED BY JOSEPH KERSKI You can find  the presentation here:  https://sway.com/1wqIVygyotLQ0ax1 which also contains: 

We are happy to announce that there will be a live event of the course in the form of a webinar. Please join us for this opportunity to engage even further in Citizen Science activities for education.

The webinar will take place on 20th September at 17:30 CEST

Please also have in mind that the webinar will be recorded, so if you are not able to join, the recording will be available in this section shortly after the webinar has taken place.

To participate in the webinar click here. The password is: Space. Please note that entry to the webinar will only be granted shortly before the start and that there is a limit of 200 participants.

The webinar will be presented by Joseph Kerski and hosted by Teodora Ioan and Audrey Korczynska, of the Space Awareness project.

Please use the padlet so as to ask Joseph any question that comes to your mind regarding the topic of the webinar, and we will ask him those questions at the end of his presentation.

Many thanks to all for your great work!

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).

According to the Institute of Physics' report “Girls in the Physics Classroom: A Review of the Research on the Participation of Girls in Physics” more boys than girls show a preference to physics and subsequently choose to study the subject.

In particular, according to IPO's 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). In the coming years with Europe’s knowledge economy developing and new technologies on the rise skills in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), will be of utmost importance for a broad range of careers. It is therefore imperative to attract, and recruit more young people to STEM study programmes; not just to increase the numbers of STEM-trained professionals, but also to increase the diversity of STEM-trained professionals.

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.

Research suggests that the degree of gender difference varies in relation to the gendered context of the local community labor force (Riegle‐Crumb, C., & Moore, C. , 2014). So women’s representation in professional fields across all specialties is a goal.

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.
In the following videos, Sema Husseyin shows her excitement and motivation towards Space and Physics and Zita Martins explains her job on a Space-related career.

Next, We would like you to reflect on some specific guidelines so as to create and implement science education activities that will be inclusive to all students, and that will make sure that equal chances of participation will be given to all students.

Click on the title to download the pdf file

In the previous sections we have talked about aiming for gender balance in the classroom and we have seen some examples of teaching practices for this.

Another aspect that needs attention in light of the new developments in Europe, related to the community of Migrants and to the Refugee Community, a lot of teachers are encountering new challenges in the classroom related to Racial, Ethnic and Cultural issues. They need to adapt their teaching to a new type of classroom and rethink their approach to their students. The question then becomes, how can you, as a teacher, develop a sense of global citizenship and foster understanding for diverse cultures in your own classroom?

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:

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.

We have talked about some guidelines to manage diversity and gender balance in the classroom and now, in the following presentation, we are going to see why talk about these issues through Space.

So far we have pointed out some important aspects that prove that managing diverse classrooms should be incorporated in the teaching training and process.

Teachers should be trained to:

Create inclusive activities adapted to a gender and culturally diverse classroomMake sure that the activity can be completed by all studentsConsider 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. 

 

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) Division C Commission C1 (CC1) – Astronomy for Equity and Inclusion Working Group - seeks to build new strategies, tools, and resources in Astronomy that will facilitate the access to Astronomical resources and careers for people with special educational or physical needs, or those who might be excluded for their particular race or gender.

We would like to invite you to visit some of these resources here: Astronomy for Equity and Inclusion, and watch the following video.

Below you will find some sentences about stereotypes concerning gender and cultural diversity to Space Careers:

Pick one sentence (or include another one you are aware of) and build a story about how you would address this problem in the classroom. 

We would like to invite you to illustrate your story using a comic strip or cartoon to make your students aware of these stereotypes and how they can overcome eventual obstacles on the subject. 

You may use Toon Doo or a different ICT tool you are more comfortable with, like PowToon, PowerPoint, Prezi, or even use a word document.

For most people, when they hear “a career in space“ they could immediately think of an astronaut drifting around in space solving almost impossible problems and situations, just like in the movies. But have you ever wondered who are the people that make it possible for that astronaut to reach space? Who helps them eat, wash and sleep when not on Earth? Who helps them coordinate absolutely astounding machinery in the absence of gravity?

These jobs do not always reach the spotlight or get the credit their deserve so it’s normal that a lot of young people, although fascinated and enchanted by what lies beyond Earth, could get discouraged from pursuing such a career path thinking “Oh, I could never become an astronaut, it’s impossible for me”.

To start, let’s have a first look at what space-related careers (or careers related to space) are out there (available on the job market) and the educational background needed for them. This animation is based on the Career Path in Space brochure, developed within the Odysseus project (http://www.odysseus-contests.eu/). The animation focuses on careers which were chosen in accordance to the high demand in Europe at the moment, where STEM education plays an essential role and an extra-motivation should be given. We recommend you to watch the animation and then explore the brochure further, for more information.

Of course, these are not all the careers out there! This is just a teaser to help you, and your students, understand that space is actually accessible by everyone, regardless of gender, culture or socio-economic status. More than this, you don’t need to be a math-whizz or hold 3 Master degrees and a Phd.

Now that you got a first idea, go to the Space Awareness Career Hub and share it with your students! They will find there interviews with professionals, live webinars with experts in the space field from all over the world and also, full information on the possible careers they can follow. Before starting such an exercise with your students think about which of the careers you can link to certain school subjects, which of them fit to the subjects you teach. And how could you integrate these into your lessons? Share your ideas and reflections on this in the Dotstorm below . And vote for ideas from your peers which you find particularly insightful or useful.

Also, for your classroom activities, you will here a space careers card game which you can download, adapt and use in your classroom as you see fit! More career activities will be produced in the Space Awareness project so follow the project for all the latest releases.

A key aspect in choosing a career in one field or another is having a role model to look up to. We will now look at some lessons learned about how role models impact young people’s space-oriented career choices, narrated in three parts by Jen de Witt, researcher in the Space Awareness project.

The first part will touch upon some points to have in mind before starting these kind of activities with your students.

Now, Jen will explain what to look at when choosing a role model to present in the classroom.

Finally, a few tips for preparing yourself as a teacher, or anyone working with young people, who wants to engage students in the multitude of space careers.

You can also see here a resume of Jen’s research into role models’ influence on space-oriented career choices.

We’ve mentioned repeatedly how a space or astronomy career is perfectly attainable by your students, regardless of their background, but maybe it will help if we hear it from the students themselves. You can see below a series of testimonials by students at the International Space University. Follow what they say – these might be your students in the future!

As you can see, a lot of these students never thought they would reach this field and it all started with a simple curiosity about what lies beyond our Earth. Do you see any similarities between what these students say and what your students say?

Now see if you can identify a national role model in space/astronomy. In some countries you might have to do a bit of research first. Write how this person fits with what you’ve learned in this activity and share with us at least one idea about how you will integrate him/her in a lesson with your students.

THESE ARE THE GUIDELINES FOR THE FINAL ACTIVITY. THE FINAL ACTIVITY, WHICH IS NECESSARY IF YOU WANT TO COMPLETE THE COURSE AND EARN THE COURSE CERTIFICATE, IS IN THE NEXT SECTION: 5.5 Final activity: teaching with space and astronomy

In this final activity you have to

As already mentioned in the course introduction, the idea is for you to reflect on everything you have learned on the course and integrate this into a final course product that is directly useful for your work in the classroom - a lesson plan. By reviewing other participants' lesson plans you will also receive some further ideas and reflect more about your own application of what you have learnt on the course.

Please remember to write your Lesson Plan in English! Don't worry if you are not so confident in English. Just try to make the work understandable. Language mistakes should not be included in the review of your Lesson Plan. However, if you do not write your Lesson Plan in English it won't be possible for your peers to provide you feedback. If, for some reason, you cannot get the link for your Lesson Plan in the Learning Designer, then export it or take a screenshot and submit the file.

To design the lesson plan we ask you to use a very nice tool called the Learning Designer which was developed by the London Institute of Education. We already introduced you to this tool during the Course Introduction so hopefully you have already looked at it and created an account. If you haven't done this yet, browse to learningdesigner.org/register.php and create an account. This should be very straight-forward; Just enter your details, click on the activation link in the email you receive (check your Spam folder if you don't receive an email), and then log-in using your username (this is not your email address but the username you identify when registering) and password.

You can also see an example of a lesson plan created in the Learning Designer further back in the Course Introduction. We also invite you to have a look at the following video to the Learning Designer which was created by Reyhan Güneş, a participant on a course on the European Schoolnet Academy where there was a similar activity. She outlines how she has been using the Learning Designer and why it is a great tool to use for lesson planning and sharing ideas with colleagues. A big thanks to her for preparing this video.

For all Italian colleagues out there, take a look at an Italian introduction to the Learning Designer here. Have you also written a blog post, an article or another form of digital content introducing the Learning Designer in your own language? Let us know and we will spread the word!

You will be required to provide 2 reviews of other participants' lesson plans. We will provide more detail on what to include in your reviews in the next section but in order to understand more generally what is required of you take a look at the 2nd video below where Reyhan Güneş explains what is important to consider and be aware of when writing a peer review of someone else's work.

 

PLEASE SEE BELOW A RECORDING OF THE WEBINAR THAT TOOK PLACE ON 17TH OCTOBER WITH THE THEME PATH TO SPACE CAREERS PRESENTED BY DR. FRANK DANESY

You can download the presentation here!

We are happy to announce that there will be a live event of the course in the form of a webinar. Please join us for this opportunity to engage even further in Paths to Space Careers

In this session, Dr. Frank Danesy will address key questions related to careers in space: What academic disciplines are needed in the space sector? What job trends and career opportunities are there in the space domain? What does it take to become an astronaut? How does the space sector deal with diversity? What can secondary school students do to prepare themselves for careers in space? What can teachers do to support the interests of young people with respect to space careers? 

The webinar will take place on 17th October at 17:00 CEST, Brussels time. 

Please also have in mind that the webinar will be recorded, so if you are not able to join, the recording will be available in this section shortly after the webinar has taken place.

To participate in the webinar click here. The password is: space. Please note that entry to the webinar will only be granted shortly before the start and that there is a limit of 200 participants.

The webinar will be presented by Frank Danesy, Head of Business Unit Control and Senior Financial Controller, Directorate of Operations at the European Space Agency and hosted by Teodora Ioan and Anastasiya Boiko, of the Space Awareness project.

Dr. Danesy is a space veteran with more than twenty-five years of experience in the space sector. He has recruited space professionals for more than 1500 positions, conducted some 10.000 interviews and was responsible for the HR activities related to ESA’s 2008/2009 astronaut recruitment campaign. He has spent more than a decade holding talks to students, faculty members and young professionals about career prospects in the space sector.

Please use the padlet so as to ask Dr. Frank Danesy any question that comes to your mind regarding the topic of the webinar, and we will ask him those questions at the end of his presentation.

Many thanks to all for your great work!