Astronomy Education Workshop Series

Williams College

February 12-13 and March 5-6, 2007
 

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Children are naturally fascinated by the stars, planets, and other aspects of astronomy. However, it is often a dry subject when taught in the regular classroom. The new planetariums are wonderful vehicles to ignite student interest and for teacher professional development. Through a set of two-day workshops held in February at Williams College's Milham Planetarium, teachers of grades 1-12 will have the chance to enhance their confidence with astronomical concepts and methods of classroom presentation.

Objectives

The Planetarium

Activities

• Learn about opportunities to bring classes to Williams College's planetarium

• Hear talks and see planetarium demonstrations led by program directors Prof. Jay Pasachoff of Williams College and Dr. Shawn Burdick of Mt. Greylock Regional High School

• Brainstorm different ways to tie in the planetarium and astronomy education tools to curricular standards, units, and lessons

• Use hands-on investigative techniques for designing lessons

• Plan pre- and post-visit student planetarium activities

• Learn about NASA-provided support for your student visits to the planetarium

Topics

Workshop sessions will cover:

• Organization of the Solar System and planetary orbits

• Exploration of the outer Solar System (including the Cassini mission to Saturn and New Horizons to Pluto)

• Use of occultations to discover rings around Uranus and Neptune and to deepen understanding of the atmospheres of Pluto, Charon, Titan, and Kuiper-belt objects

• Discussion of the current question as to whether Pluto is a planet and, more generally, "what is a planet?"

Sample Lesson Plans Available Online:

• Additional useful information is available at vetted E/PO sites

• NASA Space System Exploration – A set of K–4 activities relevant to the solar system http://solarsystem.nasa.gov/educ/

Meet the Directors

Shawn Burdick

Williams College: B.A. 1981 Physics Boston University: Masters 1985, Ph.D. 1987 Physics Massachusetts Teaching Certification, provisional 2000, Professional 2004

Dr. Burdick has been teaching Physics, Astronomy and General Science at the Mt. Greylock Regional School District since 1999 as a certified High School Physics Teacher . He has also been teaching introductory Physics and Astronomy for the last three summer terms as an adjunct professor at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts. He has successfully taught science students at all age and ability levels from 8th –12th grade, as well as at the college level. Even as a graduate student his passion for teaching was recognized with an award for best teaching fellow at BU. He has continually volunteered his time to participate in physics and astronomy educational outreach with several schools across Massachusetts.

Burdick’s teaching credentials include high-passing the Massachusetts State Department of Education teachers' tests in Communications and Literacy, and in Physics and continuing educational coursework in his field and in general educational theory and practices at a variety of schools of Education including MCLA, Gordon College, Simmons College, and Leslie College. Prior to becoming a public school teacher, Dr. Burdick enjoyed a career as a research scientist. He worked on a variety of infrared astronomy projects for NASA and the DOE including data analysis and modeling of the infrared zodiacal dust signatures as a foreground subtraction problem for the cosmic background investigations of the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE) satellite, for which he received a NASA Achievement award. He did additional space research on other satellites and worked on pattern recognition in remote sensing.

Jay Pasachoff

Jay M. Pasachoff is Field Memorial Professor of Astronomy at Williams College, where he teaches the astronomy survey course and works with undergraduate students on a variety of astronomical research projects. He is also Director of the Hopkins Observatory and Chair of the Astronomy Department.

Pasachoff pioneered the emphasis in textbooks on contemporary astronomy alongside the traditional bases. He has taken advantage of his broad experience with a wide variety of ground-based telescopes and spacecraft in writing his texts. Pasachoff received the 2003 Education Prize of the American Astronomical Society: "For his eloquent and informative writing of textbooks from junior high through college, For his devotion to teaching generations of students, For sharing with the world the joys of observing eclipses, For his many popular books and articles on astronomy, For his intense advocacy on behalf of science education in various forums, For his willingness to go into educational nooks where no astronomer has gone before, the AAS Education Prize is awarded to Jay M. Pasachoff."

Pasachoff's expedition with students to the March 29, 2006, total solar eclipse will be his 42nd solar eclipse. His research is currently sponsored by the National Science Foundation, NASA, and the National Geographic Society. He is Chair of the Working Group on Eclipses of the International Astronomical Union. He is collaborating with colleagues to observe occultations of stars by Pluto, its largest moon (Charon), Triton, and other objects in the outer parts of the solar system. He also works in radio astronomy of the interstellar medium, concentrating on deuterium and its cosmological consequences.