Teachers learn how to enliven science at space exploration class

By Adrianne Kroepsch

For just a few hours recently, middle school and high school science teachers from as far away as Buffalo and Manhattan became children again. They built a magnetometer out of a soda bottle, they used baking powder, vinegar and play dough to model the resurfacing of lava and they built a device out of shoebox to learn how scientists use radar observations to make a topographic map of Venus.

Sean Tully '03, Ithaca College, left, who is working in Cornell's astronomy department for the summer, demonstrates for Ralph Greco, center, of Whitesboro High School and Wendy Boomer of Iroquois Middle School, a possible classroom exercise, during the Spacecraft Exploration Workshop, Aug. 1, in the Space Sciences Building. Robert Barker/University Photography

The occasion was a three-day Spacecraft Exploration Teacher Workshop Aug. 1-3 at Cornell's Space Sciences Building. The enthusiastic involvement by 21 teachers of earth science, physics, astronomy and space sciences gave evidence that while New York state's secondary school students are on summer vacation, their teachers are busy using the hiatus to improve and enliven science curricula.

The workshop, supported by Cornell's Department of Astronomy and Ithaca's Sciencenter, was funded by a NASA program, the Initiative to Develop Education through Astronomy and Space Sciences (IDEAS), that teams educators with researchers in science outreach. Co-directors of the workshop were Maureen Bell, assistant to the director of the Sciencenter, and Beth Clark, assistant professor of physics at Ithaca College. They were assisted by seniors Jamie De Gregory of Ithaca College and Rebecca Byard of Oberlin College.

"Teaching about the planets and space exploration is important for the future," said Evelyn O'Malley, an earth science teacher at Scotia-Glenville High School near Albany. "Space is one of our final frontiers. Space and the deep ocean are the only two places that are still largely unexplored. Let's get students excited about that and see what happens."

Teachers face a major hurdle in trying to introduce new themes, said Clark. Because of new standards set by the New York State Board of Regents, a great deal of class time must be spent preparing for Regents exams.

"During the workshop, we have discovered that the constraints on New York state teachers are severe," said Clark. "By receiving feedback from the teachers, we're getting ideas about which Regents requirements we can address with certain parts of these activities in order to add even more emphasis to those parts of the curriculum."

The main topics addressed at the workshop were comparative planetology and spacecraft technologies -- how the Earth has evolved differently from other planets in the solar system and how NASA missions have provided answers to that question. With this background, the teachers collaborated to develop a classroom activity guide.

Clark said the guide, which includes lessons in math, technology, teamwork and science subjects, uses the topic of spacecraft exploration to spark curiosity in science as a whole. "The plan can be broken down into four general concepts that the students need to know: the fundamentals of formulating scientific questions, what it means for a planet to be Earth-like from an astronomical perspective, technologies that are necessary for spacecraft exploration, and examples of past NASA spacecraft missions," said Clark.

Observed Bell: "We know from years of experience that people, especially kids, love the planets. It's so much easier to teach something that students naturally enjoy, and they retain so much more information if the subject is interesting." With this in mind, the teachers spent most of one afternoon involved in hands-on activities aimed at teaching science by doing. As well as learning to make scientific devices, the teachers also took part in hands-on experiments in color recognition, gravity and atmospheric filtering. They took details of these activities home with them, together with videos and a CD of Power Point presentations. Their goal for the fall semester is to pass on what they learned at the workshop to their students, modified somewhat for the age groups they teach.

It's hoped that in time the lessons will be circulated even more widely. "We hope to distribute this activity guide to teachers all over the state of New York and, via the NASA CORE program, all over the country," said Bell. CORE (Central Operation of Resources for Educators) distributes the space agency's multimedia classroom materials to educators around the world.

Mark Heilbrunn, a high school earth sciences teacher at the Manhattan Center for Science and Math, also plans to show his class a video created for NASA's Mars mission next year when two rovers will explore the surface of the planet (Cornell is leading the development of the science package to be carried by the rovers). Said Heilbrunn, "Every single unit that we discuss in 11th and 12th grade earth science is somehow covered in that seven-minute video."