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Professional Development Opportunities for Middle and High School Teachers
FALL/WINTER 2004-2005
One World, Many Worlds: Searching for Life on Earth and on Other Planets
A Program for Secondary School Teachers - Sponsored by NASA
The goal of this program is to increase teachers' own
understanding of key topics in the field of astrobiology and to provide
a practical context in which science can be taught with an
interdisciplinary approach. The program consists of 14 weekly meetings,
starting on October 18, 2004 and ending on March 7, 2005. During the
program educators will engage in a variety of hands-on activities
complemented by lectures that address some of the research areas
recommended in the NASA Astrobiology Roadmap. Time will be especially
devoted to the discussion of the results of activities run by the
participants in their classrooms. Scientists from the
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics will bring to the program
the latest news in the fields of astrobiology and the search for
planets in other solar systems and will be available for interaction
with the participants. A highly integrated science, astrobiology offers
a rich venue for life science, physical science, and earth and space
science teachers to engage students with intriguing questions and ideas
that introduce them to scientific inquiry out of curiosity. At the same
time, astrobiology allows teachers to meet many science content
learning standards, as described, for example, in the National Science Education Standards. As
an integral part of the program, teachers of the same discipline will
work together to identify the science content learning standards in the
Massachusetts Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework
that they will be able to address with the proposed set of astrobiology
activities.
This course will include a series of talks by scientists of
the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and Harvard
University. All interested educators are welcome to attend, even
if you are not enrolled in the course. For lecture times and
topics, please refer to this
flyer that includes a complete schedule and more information about
the lectures.
For more information on the program refer to the Syllabus (Syllabus.doc or Syllabus.pdf ) or contact Irene Porro.
You can submit your application electronically or by mail (PDF - print and send).
SUMMER 2004
Tracing the Structure of the Universe: What Do We Know? How Do We Know
It? How Can We Use It In the Classroom?
A 2004 Summer Institute for Secondary School Teachers - Sponsored by NASA and the MIT Center for Space Research
The Center for Space Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is offering a five-day summer institute, with one pre-institute session in the spring, to expose teachers to current space science research associated with NASA's HETE mission. The goal of the Institute is to increase teachers' own understanding of key topics related to the structure and evolution of the Universe theme and to provide a context in which many of the Massachusetts Department of Education science content learning standards, as described in the MA DOE Science and Technology/Engineering Curriculum Framework, can be met. The three overarching questions that will frame the activities, lectures, and events for this Institute are:
- How does the development of new technologies to collect data in all regions of the electromagnetic spectrum contribute to our understanding of the origin, structure, and evolution of the universe?
- How does the principle of universal gravitation help to explain the architecture of the universe?
- How does the life cycle of a star exemplify conservation of mass and energy in the universe?
Check out the syllabus for this course.
The deadline for this course has passed.
