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Introductory Meeting
The
32+ administrators, graduate students, secretaries, and scientists gathered in the A building classroom to indulge in pizza eating and good dialog about the education initiative currently in progress at the Center for Astrophysics.
Rick Harnden and Steve Murray started things off by stressing a need for the many and diverse members of the CfA to recognize and become familiar with all of the education programs happening CfA-wide - to build a "cohesiveness among projects". Also mentioned was that personnel should feel as if they can participate in educational ventures at the CfA in any capacity they wish. A motion was made that gathering the varied resources of the CfA might bring about new projects and enhance others. They also spoke of expanding horizons; considering instead of one isolated classroom visit, a school-wide presentation of the subject or a long-term interaction with a school around the subject.
Kim Dow then spoke to us about the projects she is a part of, such as the Summer Intern program, and how there is a need for mentors and advisors for these interns. She handed out pamphlets about these and other HEAD education projects. Kim mentioned projects at other institutions, such as the UC Berkeley Museum projects, and how going to meetings and conferences can give one a better sense of methods of getting involved in science education outreach.
For more information, please see: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/scied/
Tania Ruiz then spoke about the Everyday Classroom Tools project, and how it has created a working, online curriculum based on the tools of Scientific Inquiry. It is a useful resource of activities long-term or short which can be used by those wishing to visit schools or aid teachers in their science classes. Presently, she said the ECT project is in its dissemination phase, and needs to create a hardcopy and CDROM version of the curriculum for distribution. Eric Mandel, also of the ECT project, said that a major understanding has been gleaned from the years of working directly with teachers: that scientists and teachers have very different motivations and concerns which can often create serious gaps in communication. Working to bridge these gaps over the years has helped the ECT project to create a curriculum which is uniquely suited for both teachers and scientists because it addresses these concerns directly within the text.
For more information, please see: http://hea-www.harvard.edu/ECT/
Next, Kathy Lestition spoke about the AXAF educational web base's many resources. Presently, the site includes information about X-ray astronomy through animations and graphics and text, including hands-on activities for teachers and parents. The site also details the AXAF mission itself, including the latest public information releases, historical documentation, and eventually a satellite track-map updated online. She said that there is much for CfA employees to do to be a part of this growing site, from reviewing and editing the web site to adding your own material to the growing library of information. The ASC needs help from scientists to volunteer their time for lectures to schools, mentoring AXAF-related projects, writing articles, and helping develop simulations for the web site.
For more information, please see: http://xrtpub.harvard.edu
Next, Roy Gould spoke to us about the NASA Science Education Forum. There are four science themes spread to four astronomy institutions: Jet Propulsion Lab - Solar System, Space Telescope Science Institute Origins, University of California and Berkeley - The Sun and Earth, and CfA - Evolution of the Universe. NASA's initiative is for members of the technical and scientific community to interface with education/outreach representatives from NASA missions for the development of resources and projects that serve the general public by enhancing science education and improving public understanding of science.
For more information, please see: http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/oss/education/index.htm
Then the meeting was open for discussion, and there was mention of additional ways of getting involved in science education, such as the American Association for the Advancement of Science meetings and printed or online resources. Also, helping Girl/Boy Scouts earn their astronomy merit badges was suggested as a program we could start at the CfA. Concerns over how to encourage and yet also maintain programs with students and teachers who are not in close proximity to the CfA was raised, as well as recognizing the processes which are undertaken in the administrative aspect of public schools. Several at the table suggested that non-scientific skills were going to be needed to make projects work, and that we should learn each others' strengths and use them when needed.
After the meeting, it was decided that a web resource be developed to outline the many resources we have at the CfA. Please be sure to include yourself in the database.
Second Meeting The
Dear HEAD Eds, 11/12/97
This is an overview of today's luncheon meeting. I jotted some impressions down after our first meeting and for some informal lunches a few of us had. When people found out about this, I was volunteered to take minutes. A few others also took notes today, so like network newscasts, if you don't like this version, change channels. Note that I'm not a professional stenographer, so these will at some level be incomplete and inaccurate, and I will occasionally toss in some "analysis." If I mangled your views or left you out completely, strike back vigorously in the headed mailing list.
Rick Harnden opened the meeting by telling us all to be good. This was to be a brainstorming session, and if we couldn't say something nice about someone else's ideas, we weren't to say anything at all. This was backed up by pain of colored referee cards, eventually leading to loss of pizza (or at least having to pay for it). Given such harsh punishment, everyone behaved, except Steve Murray, who mouthed off and was slapped with a yellow card.
Kim Dow and Todd Henry then performed a skit involving a business exec and a teacher. They had difficulty interacting at first, as one spoke Dilbertese and the other Curriculian, but they perservered and eventually realized that a valuable and effective partnership could be developed between the schools and outside organizations.
Kim mentioned that Tania Ruiz is developing a web page to summarize various education activities at CfA, and then Chris Halas discussed a new CfA education newsletter. Kim, Chris and Natanya Ness already had a draft (wow!) of a newsletter they're planning to distribute at the beginning of each month along with the weekly calendar. This will help the numerous small and large educational efforts at CfA keep abreast of what the others are doing (a problem raised earlier by, among others, Sam Dyson). It will contain brief articles on specific programs, short columns on how to approach and interact with kids, and have sections for programs who need help and helpers who need programs. Natayna (nness@head-cfa) is accepting contributions. Some suggestions from the crowd (altogether benign; the only color Rick flashed was his tie) included incorporating graphics, emailing a reminder for submissions, a calendar, color paper, and discussing a program coming up this winter to mentor public school kids.
Chris then passed the conch to Todd, who summarized the SHOP program he and others developed in Baltimore. It's a program to give low-income middle school kids sustained exposure to scientists and some aspects of science. These kids don't have pencils and paper, let alone computers, so the activities had to involve physical devices, which the SHOP team provided. The program consists of 6 experiments which merge space and life sciences, a connection which seems to be getting a lot of attention recently from several scientists as well as the public. The overall theme of the exercises is to design a habitat for another planet. At least 5 scientists went for each session to lead the kids in hands-on exercises involving the scale of the solar system, the greenhouse effect, space engineering, etc. Todd and Chris are itching to start this program up again here in the Boston area. Don't worry, you don't need to commit to all 6 experiments. Help with even one would be important. They especially need organizational and logistics help. A little later in the meeting Rick asked Todd about leveraging SHOP. Several ideas were discussed, including training undergrads to do it as part of a practicum, so they'd get paid or earn university credit for it. Todd held 1-day workSHOPs to introduce the teachers to all of the lectures in advance of their school visits. A big problem with doing even this much, let alone more, is that teachers are *very* strapped for time and energy. It was suggested that funding was needed to get teachers away for longer periods of time, such as in summer.
Kim mentioned that there is indeed a girlscout merit badge for astronomy, and they could use astronomers to help with this! At this point Rick opened up general brainstorming. I'm not even going to try to say who came up with which idea. Please elaborate on your ideas in the headed email group so we can hear more about them and find out who thought of it. (I'm new here, so I don't know many of you yet.) The first idea was to print up cards for people to hand out containing outreach contact info (names, phone #, email, web pages). This would be a lot more helpful than just telling people we run into out in the world to call CfA. It was suggested that we work with kids on *developing* science fair projects, rather than simply judging them. Apparently many of the science fair projects involve biological sciences, in large part because of a lack of resources and contacts for physical science topics. Roy mentioned that the Museum of Science has many outreach programs for which they need people: science by mail; demos in the museum; and mentoring inner city kids who work at the museum. We should compile a list of contact people at the Science Museum for these various programs. It was suggested that we should generate a more general contact list, including teachers, education bureaucrats,scout leaders, etc. This suggestion led to a call for a list of educational activities by CfA individuals, to be used for finding expertise and as a political device for touting ourselves to funding agencies. The Science Ed. department gets about 1 request/mo. for a rent-a-scientist, and it's not always easy for them to play matchmaker. Several people mentioned that the newly launched newsletter would be a good place to deal with these matchmaking, coordinating, and list making needs. We heard a proposal to do a lot of short demos on AXAF at a lot of schools, so the kids would know what it is in advance of the launch and pay more attention to it in the news. At this point someone cautioned not to stuff too much into a single lecture. Other ideas for AXAF included a video about the mission which could be distributed to schools and having kids submit proposals for the telescope to try to win a trip to the launch. The spirit of the opening skit was recalled with a call to better understand what students and teachers need from us. A bit of that is happening: two teachers were here for an entire summer, but they were shuffled around a lot and had computer access problems; an IDEA grant is pending to include 2 teachers on the summer intern program.
Here's a bullet summary of the brainstorming during the second HEADED meeting:
-- Outreach info calling cards to hand out to people.
-- List of Museum of Science contact info.
-- List of wider contacts.
-- Matchmaking between "have scientist" and "want scientist."
-- Compile educational activities and accomplishments of CfAers.
-- Use our "Education Bulletin" newsletter for a lot of this.
-- Help kids develop science fair projects, as well as judge.
-- Museum of Science floor shows, mentoring, mail program.
-- Single school lectures in advance of launch publicity
-- High school kids propose for AXAF to win a trip to the launch.
-- Video for schools.
-- 2 teachers last summer at CfA
-- IDEA grant pending to include 2 teachers in summer internship prog.
Third Meeting The
Hi Folks,
Wow! We had a very large turnout at our last meeting, 37 I believe. That's really encouraging. As before, if I misrepresent what you said, please correct it with a posting to headed.
First off, the fashion report: Rick Harnden sported a rather conservative tie this time, but Steve Murray countered with a bright multi-colored striped shirt. Rick added a blue warning card to his pile, for prolix participants. He now has enough colors for motley. Those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about can read the background from the previous meeting (http://hea-www.harvard.edu/scied/HEADED/minutes.html).
Kim Dow impressed several "volunteers" into two competing teams which had to build paper towers without talking amongst themselves. This sounded a lot like one of those attempts by teachers or parents to build character (this snide comment is a take-off from a Calvin & Hobbes strip, BTW), and in fact Kim did reveal a moral: our group can do a lot more in less time if we communicate.
We then heard overviews of several CfA programs:
2) Bruce took this chance to summarize the activities of the Science Education department, of which he is a member:
* A list of accessible physical resources, including classroom
activities, slides, portable planetarium, and the two
refractors on the roof.
* Meeting times and summaries.
* Newsletter.
* A list of CfAers interested in outreach, including their
areas of special interest.
4) Chris Halas presented recent progress on the SHOP (Student Hands-on Physics, a school outreach program developed by Todd Henry et al. originally in Baltimore) efforts.
5) Dan Patnaude & Randall Smith portrayed issues and needs for science fairs.
6) Nancy Finkelstein delineated the programs of the Science Media Group.
* They developed the "Minds of Our Own" documentary series
for tv, which will receive a local screening at CfA in the future.
* The Annenberg Foundation is funding a tv-based professional
development program for science teachers.
* Science Media runs live interactive workshops for K-8 math
teachers and provides physical science assessment
techniques to K-12 teachers.
7) Megan Watzke outlined the efforts of the Public Affairs department.
* Conduct monthly observatory open nights.
* Match CfA staffers with schools who request someone.
* Handle calls from the public.
* Work on community relations.
* Write material for public dissemination.
8) Jim Baab told us about the activities of AMP.
* Cambridge area open houses for grad students and professors
at other institutions.
* Workshops.
* Seminar series.
9) Kim is instituting a twice-yearly program to help girlscouts get astronomy merit badges.
Paul Green articulated why he is limiting access to the ConcepTests library. One reason is to motivate people to contribute more tests. Another is to keep students from seeing the questions and answers in advance, which would dilute the effectiveness of the exercises.
Randall then led us into a discussion of HEASARC's ask-an-astronomer program and how to implement something like that here. Apparently there's a compilation of all of their questions and answers, and we should try to get a copy of that. We could put these question and answer pairs on the web, both for the use of the public directly and as a resource for CfAers who answer questions. It's important to remember, however, that many of those most in need of our help don't have computer access or savvy.
Rick called for a new name for the group and the mailing list. This started as a HEAD education group, but it's rapidly becoming broader, and we are very grateful for that. So as not to be head-centric, please help think of a new name. Please email suggestions to Kim Dow. (Do try to come up with something that is as amenable to word games as the current moniker.)
We'll plan to meet in future on the 3rd Thursday of each month at 1:00 pm in the same place. Kim passed out a survey to find out where people's interests lie and then adjourned the meeting. The next meeting will be January 22nd.
................
Other bits:
Kim is working on the idea from the previous meeting to print up a few cards with CfA outreach info on it (contact people, phone numbers, web addresses, etc.) for giving out at random encounters. See Kim if you are interested in working on this project.
Just to reiterate an earlier point, you don't have to be a research astronomer to make a big contribution to these programs. All are welcome, and there's more than enough work to be done to utilize everyone's talents and interests.
Fourth Meeting The
Summary of Education and Outreach Alliance Meeting on 1/22/98
Hi Folks,
We had a much smaller group this time, which is understandable given the looming AXAF deadline. The main agenda item was an overview of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific's (ASP) Project ASTRO (I don't think it's an acronym, as I haven't found an expansion for it). Kim Dow described it briefly and then put in a video provided by ASP.
Project ASTRO began ~5 years ago in the San Francisco area to provide a menchanism by which local amateur and professional astronomers could aid teachers in science education. The operating philosophies of the program are:
2) The astronomers should visit the same class or group multiple times (at least 4 are recommended) to provide continuity, reinforcement, and a lasting impression.
3) Team the education, child psychology, and class control expertise of the teacher with the scientific expertise of the astronomers.
4) The approach is hands-on and inquiry-based.
5) Grades 4-9 are targeted.
After volunteers and teachers have been paired, they meet for an orientation, training, and planning workshop. ASP provides materials for this as well as the classroom activities. The classroom ideas and resource book is quite large, so there should be a wide range of already prepared activities. While the program is primarily targeted at classrooms, it has also been successfully used at community centers and with youth groups.
The Boston Museum of Science and ASP have recently approached us to start a Project ASTRO program in the Boston area headquartered at CfA. This time money would be available for materials and a part-time coordinator. The Science Museum is quite enthusiastic about co-directing this program. One of their major roles, possibly in conjunction with CfA's Science Education Department, would be to run the teacher/volunteer workshop this summer. Apparently the AAVSO (American Association of Variable Star Observers) is keen on participating, and we might be able to enlist other local astronomy groups and departments as the program develops.
We had a lively and fruitful discussion after the video and overview by Kim. One of the points raised and generally agreed upon is that much of what we've been talking about doing and trying to set up in our meetings and various subgroups is similar to the Project ASTRO approach and goals. Adopting this program may relieve a lot of the time-consuming "grunt work" of getting some of our ideas moving. Sam Dyson emphasized the synergy of the ASTRO program; many teachers are insecure about their science backgrounds but are masters of classroom control and teaching technique, whereas astronomers often have the opposite strengths and weaknesses.
Sam questioned whether the material we present is the most important aspect of our visits, or whether it's the fact that the students meet a successful person who values education. He feels that the impact should not be contingent upon the science presented. Several people agreed with this, and it started an interesting discussion. Judith suggested that the primary goal of our efforts be to show the kids that science and learning in general can be fun. Pat Slane, a former high school teacher, said that students will be more fascinated by the visitor's profession than what s/he says to them. Chris Halas proposed that we broaden our focus to show the connection between astronomy and other areas. Sharlene Ford propounded organizing a writing project for the class in between our visits, using our hopefully fun and interesting material as a hook to get them to work on communication skills. Judith pointed out that the astronomy could be connected to other areas, such as music, poetry, etc. [Editorial note: Chris Impey, my former advisor at Arizona, has his astro 101 students do a creative term project that's linked to astronomy in some way. These have ranged from elaborate mechanical models of the solar system, to painting, sculpture, poetry, dance, videos, etc.] We were reminded that the kids will likely have a variety of responses regardless of what we do, and that we won't please all of them with any single approach or demonstration.
Judith and Kim had some suggestions for modification of the basic program. Judith described a program in which a school had a "scientist in residence," who went to several classrooms in the same school over the course of a year. Kim suggested compiling and sending a description of each of the volunteers and what they do, so that the kids could decide who they wanted (ie an adopt-an-astronomer program).
We need to submit a joint proposal with the Museum of Science by the end of February. You can find out more info on the Project ASTRO web page http://aspsky.org/subpages/proj.html. If you have questions or opinions, please talk to Kim.
Fifth Meeting The
Summary of Education and Outreach Alliance Meeting on 3/26/98
The main focus of this meeting was to discuss the newly formed Boston Project ASTRO Coalition, led by SAO and the Museum of Science.
The Education & Outreach Alliance was introduced to some new meeting attendees by Rick Harnden, Kim Dow and Tania Ruiz. Rick and Tania talked about a group of 10 boy scouts who visited the CfA. Various scientists helped out with giving tours and talks which the boyscouts enjoyed very much, and which will help them attain their astronomy badges.
Two pamphlets were handed out - one a Project ASTRO Teacher and Astronomer Manual, and the other a summary of the Science Education Department's current projects. Chris Halas pointed out that there are many projects and materials that have been produced by SED that can be used in classrooms and can be incorporated into the ASTRO Curriculum. Kim said that though ASTRO is geared to the 4th-9th grades, other grades could be included if someone was interested in doing another grade, and that there is flexibility within the program. Tania brought out that there is an ECT manual online that is specifically for grades K-6. The ECT page can be reached from the HEAD Education/Outreach homepage. Chris and Kim also noted that there will soon be a resource room at the CfA which will include materials, slides, props, and possibly even a telescope for scientists to use in the classroom.
The logistics of how Project ASTRO would work was discussed. Kim emphasized that Project ASTRO is open to all of the CfA, not just HEAD. It's structured to have scientists teamed with a teacher or group leader for four classroom visits. Community groups, such as the boy scouts can also fall under the project, as well as settings outside the classroom, such as field trips. The other groups involved are Bunker Hill Community College, Wellesley College, BU, MIT, AAVSO, Sky and Telescope, and the Amateur Telescope Makers of Boston. A scientist can pair up with another scientist or assistant to go into a classroom. Those involved will attend a Project ASTRO workshop on July 30th-August 1st at the Museum of Science. There will be a coordinator starting at the CfA in April who will be in charge of the partner-matching and schedule coordination. The coordinator is the point person who will contact everyone on the outreach_local list and those who have attended meetings to see where their interests lie (i.e., what grade, school, or town they might like to visit). The coordinator will then team them up with a teacher that matches the criteria, and coordinates both's schedules. Each site involved will have a coordinator. Chris encouraged people to try to pair up with ATM members for classroom visits.
The brief video on Project ASTRO was shown again.
Megan Watzke from the Public Affairs Office announced that the Cambridge Public Library was interested in doing a Family Night having scientists do some "readings" during the summer. If anyone is interested in helping out, contact Megan at mwatzke@cfa.
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