Teaching astronomy at home

In the first project, students work on their project partly in class and partly at home.

“All students receive a project description where their tasks are described. The teacher's focus was on the student engagement in class and then this was supported with digital research carried out at home. With guidance and encouragement from teachers, students can produce amazing work. We as teachers can guide but a lot of the work can be individual and at home. Giving the student ownership of their work and in this, there is a great pride. Students' work presented varied from 3D posters, information posters, powerpoints, handmade models. Work was displayed and presented by the individual for all other first years to see.
As a teacher, our biggest challenge is feeling the constraints of a curriculum when we need to allow time and the freedom for the students to explore different methods of presenting projects. This we need to change!! As a group of teachers next year we will have more projects on display for students before the project to give them ideas and allow them to explore and remind the students that it doesn’t matter which project method they choose. Also, inform students that their work will be displayed, this to us increases the value of the piece of work for the students.

We have also now built-in time for project work into our scheme of work.”

Sinead Kelly, St. Oliver’s’ Community College, Drogheda, Co. Louth. Ireland

What teachers can do when students are at home fulltime, shows the next project.

“My students and parents needed motivation before class. By giving them all virtual museum links and magazine links, I made lists of movies and books that they can watch in this process. We held film and book evaluation meetings on Zoom.

I talked to an astronomer from the Istanbul Science Center and invited them to my classes through the Zoom platform. It had been a different experience for the students.

I have been a science teacher for 25 years. I am aware that science lessons cannot be without experimentation. We started our experiments on Zoom. First, we designed our own spacecraft and made models of plant and animal cells. We conducted experiments describing solid, liquid and gas pressure. Both I and my students were doing experiments with the materials at home following our science curriculum, and we still do.

The biggest problem I faced during this process was the weak internet infrastructure in our country and the lack of access to the internet for some families. For economic reasons, some students didn't even have internet in their homes.”

Burçin Taşkesen, Türdü 100th year secondary school, Muğla, Turkey

The last project is not about school teaching but organizing and conducting an extracurricular activity.

“Such activities were almost completely stopped during Covid-19 quarantine and were more difficult to do, mainly because their participants were not located in a single school, but all over the country. Nevertheless, pupils really needed to be involved in events that sustained their personal interest. This was a traditional event, which was held online for the first time and managed to realize all its components like, lectures, workshops, modelling, presentation on the use of various online resources, remote telescopes, and mobile applications for working with students. Even an online observation session was organized.  The activity helped the participating teachers to organize better their online teaching since they had to do the digital transition in only 3 days.  

For more information on the event and some pictures you can look at:
http://upb.phys.uni-sofia.bg/projects/phforall/events/Astroparty_en.html“

Ivo Jokin, Baikal village, Dolna Mitropolia region, Bulgaria