Mississauga Centre RASC

101st Meeting

                                                                                             Speakers’ Night       

Day:                Friday March 7, 2008

Chair:                Randy Attwood

Speaker:          John Percy

Connecting Students, Teachers and the Public with the Universe

Dr. John Percy received his B.Sc., Masters and PhD in astronomy at U of T and is a founding faculty member in astronomy and astrophysics at UTM.  A professor of astronomy for 40 years, he is our sponsor here.  

Dr. Percy began by showing how to approach any education activity by taking account of aims and objectives, content, teaching and learning, and by constantly evaluating what you are doing. 

Astronomy is now in the curriculum in the schools.  Astronomy is useful in our technologic, environmentally conscious society.  In Grade 1, students learn about cycles (day-night, seasons).  Grade 6 has a big unit in astronomy.  There is also a substantial astronomy unit in Grade 9 but problematic because it is advanced.  Grade 9 is also the time when most people are last in contact with astronomy.  The Grade 12 students have an Earth and planetary science unit.  In addition, post-secondary non-science students often take astronomy as their science course.  The challenge for teaching of astronomy in the schools is to get teachers to be excited and knowledgeable about a  subject that is three dimensional and uses two dimensional images.. Many misconceptions exist.  The stars are out at night but the students are not.  Under serviced populations need to be reached.   Dr. Percy showed the official curriculum and emphasized that there are major resources such as SkyWays of Mary Lou Whitehorne, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and CASCA at www.cascaeducation.ca, which has complete lesson plans.  There is one online free publication on astronomy education research, the astronomy education review.   

As to what to teach, Dr. Percy recommended starting with the awesome stuff such as the universe.  Often multicultural factors need to be taken into account with teaching.  Star watch on the OSC website is a good example of a project for students on the topic of light pollution.  The study of angles in the sky can connect astronomy with mathematics.  A debate can be held in a school setting as to whether Pluto is a planet.  Variable star light curves can be calculated with the help of the AAVSO website and stellar evolution studied.  A document for teachers about the ancient universe explains how we know the age of the universe.  Exoplanets can be studied and the Hubble Deep Field used as a resource.   

Informal education involves explaining astronomy to the public in a non-technical way.   Astronomers need training for the teaching of their subject.  It is important to reach the under serviced, to attract young people to astronomy, teach families, promote rational thinking.  The NSERC website has a presentation evaluation form for teaching.  As well , there is an Astronomy Canada website for the media. 

2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, being the 400 th anniversary of the development of the astronomical telescope by Galileo.  The Canadian website is at http://www.astronomy2009.ca/ and outlines the goals of the IYA 2009.  The IYA Committee in Canada is co-coordinating activities in this country.  Dr. Percy’s vision is that every astronomer in Canada will find one or more projects to co-ordinate with IYA activities.   As for himself, he is co-operating with Tafelmusic to do a musical Galileo project.  Included in this is the “Galileo moment” where people first look through a telescope like Galileo did. 

Science Rendezvous www.sciencerendezvous.ca, in which UTM is involved, will be held on May 10, 2008. Dr. Percy hopes that this will eventually become a national event as a day long celebration of science with cafes scientifique, science in the malls etc.  

In conclusion, to succeed in education and outreach necessary factors are networking, co-operation, partnership, co-ordination.  The astronomy education community includes teachers, writers, journalists, curriculum developers and others.

 Submitted by Chris Malicki, Secretary  Chris Malicki, Secretary                               back to Miss Centre. meeting reports page
Mississauga Centre RASC