Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 2004
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2004agufmed13c0736f&link_type=abstract
American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2004, abstract #ED13C-0736
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
0810 Post-Secondary Education, 0820 Curriculum And Laboratory Design, 0825 Teaching Methods, 0830 Teacher Training, 0845 Instructional Tools
Scientific paper
Engaging students in the process of understanding the world around them in a college level remedial reading program presents an unmitigated challenge. Students previously unimpressed with the educational system become more active participants in their classrooms when high resolution prints from Landsat obtained from the NASA-GSFC education outreach center are used to initially motivate them to perceive the context of their surroundings. In the course, imagery from Landsat that clearly show the Compton Community College track is introduced, moving on to show students similar perspectives on Egyptian pyramids and other remote regions. The satellite imagery makes understanding maps intuitive. After linking these observations from space to both the student's own experience and far away places on earth, students are introduced to the Star-date publication [http://Stardate.org]. Students are encouraged to individually follow the phases of the moon, find constellations, visit the College's telescope on nights when the astronomy class makes observations, and look for meteor showers. NASA and JPL sites are then used to teach students to access the web. Students receive instruction in using computers to navigate the web, where they then follow missions in real time, and access archived imagery and written materials. These sources of reading material are particularly valuable because they are written simply, but follow the scientific convention of addressing readers as colleagues. Notably, students have returned after completing the three-course sequence to literacy and commented on the importance to them of having learned about space in the initial course. They have reported on the excitement of teaching their children and others in the community about what they can see by looking up, and indicated their appreciation of receiving posters and handouts obtained at this meeting by displaying them prominently in their homes. Although not a traditional venue for scientific education, the importance of motivating these adult students to develop not only reading skills, but also increased awareness of the world around them gives a clear impetus for including in Compton College's remedial reading sequence the striking imagery available from our space missions. We propose that outreach directed at instructors of courses at this level would result in significant benefit to an underserved population of students, and invite feedback on ways to accomplish this through existing facilities.
Fisher C. G.
Fisher K. E.
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