Mercury,
November/December 2002 Table of Contents
|
Courtesy
of Louis A. Mayo |
Community
Involvement
Beyond
the boundaries of the school is a large resource reserve within
the community that is often untapped. Observatories, amateur astronomy
meetings, star parties, museums, planetariums, science centers,
and research centers are likely to be somewhere near your school.
Field trips to such places can be an exciting addition to your astronomy
club agenda and provide opportunities for learning difficult to
achieve in the classroom. Partnerships with some of these groups
can even involve teacher training programs and can form the basis
for grant submissions. Before you begin your club, you should make
a list of these resources and have an idea of how you might use
them during the year.
Local
professional and amateur astronomers, or planetarium or science
center directors, may even be willing to come speak to your club.
Inviting a guest speaker to one of your sessions can be a welcome
change of pace.
Local
businesses are often looking for volunteer activities and opportunities
for philanthropy. Donations to local school science programs can
be an attractive vehicle for such programs. If you are looking for
donations to your astronomy club, try contacting local research
and development firms specializing in space, Earth, or related physical
sciences.
It
may also be possible to reach out to boy/girl scouts or other such
community organizations that have established programs. This can
be a very effective way to leverage the impact of your club on the
greater community. You might, for example, invite a scout troop
to your observing sessions.
Training
The
communication of science to the public, teachers, and students contains
a number of elements and processes that may not be intuitive to
even the most savvy space researcher. For example, children under
the age of about 6 can rarely conceptualize the idea of living on
a spherical planet and not falling off. The teaching model I presented
in the magazine article was the result of years of research trying
different approaches to ensuring the greatest degree of memory retention
and creative and critical thinking development. In fact, most of
the ideas I presented, from how to work with teachers to why it's
important to align your club activities with state curriculum standards,
is basically foreign material to most astronomers, but they're important
in achieving the greatest impact for your efforts.
Believe
it or not, there are resources to help scientists learn how to be
more effective in science education classroom environments, and
you don't have to enroll in an education degree program to take
advantage of them. One of the most valuable to me has been the Space
Science Institute "Workshops on K-12 Education for Scientists
& Engineers" (www.spacescience.org/Education/ResourcesForScientists/Workshops/1.html).
This three-day workshop, normally held in Boulder Colorado, speaks
directly to astronomers and space scientists and brings in some
of the nation's best experts on K-12 education and education outreach
programs. As its promotional material states, "SSI is one of
the few organizations in the country implementing workshops on K-12
science education for scientists, engineers, and the professionals
who facilitate their involvement in Education and Public Outreach
(EPO)." I highly recommend it. While you're at it, check out
SSI's "K-14 Education Workshop for Geoscientists, Engineers,
and Education Managers" (www.spacescience.org/Education/ResourcesForScientists/
Workshops/Four-Day_Geo/1.html).
Another
valuable resource is your teacher co-leader. Even if you were to
have no formal discussions with him or her regarding pedagogy (ped'e-go'je
n. the art, profession, or study of teaching) you can gain some
insight into effective teaching (communication) strategies simply
by observing how teachers interact with your club's students.
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