Winter 2006

The ICT agenda

Switch on to science

Lena Danaia and David McKinnon present findings on the impact on learning and student attitudes towards science at school gained from an exciting project that has been delivering access to a remotely controlled telescope since 2000.

The Charles Sturt University (CSU) Remote Telescope Project provides pupils and their teachers with access to a learning package that involves the use of a remotely controlled scientific grade telescope over the Internet. Both the primary and secondary school packages contain practical approaches to teaching and learning astronomy that foster student-centred forms of instruction, encourage the extensive use of technology and involve students in inquiry-based learning experiences. The telescope serves as a motivational device to engage pupils in their learning.

What do the resources offer?

Specifically, the learning package includes online access to, and control of, the remote telescope and two digital cameras that pupils and their teachers use to take pictures of celestial objects they have decided to image. One of the cameras produces wide-angle images of the sky and the other provides highly magnified images of objects in the sky. Students have to learn how to control the telescope and its cameras in order to take the pictures they want. In the process, they learn astronomy tied directly to the science curriculum but with the potential for extensive cross-curriculum integration.

The second component of the package is a CD-ROM containing software and PowerPoint presentations. These support students and teachers in their quest to locate and capture images of celestial objects. In addition, a printed primary teacher’s guide, A Journey through Space and Time, provides an integrated approach to teaching astronomy across all Key Learning Areas. This contains enough educational activities for an entire school term. For junior secondary science, there is a printed student workbook and accompanying teachers’ guide, Practical Astronomyfor Years 7, 8 and 9. A series of projects promotes student-based inquiry in science.

The CSU remote telescope website www.csu.edu.au/telescope contains an image gallery that displays the work of students, as well as links to the Bureau of Meteorology and special events that are broadcast through video-streaming, such as the transits of Venus and Mercury.

When classes decide to participate in the program, online support is provided for teachers, and resources and assessment materials are distributed. Included in the teacher guides are pre-occasion assessment materials to assess students’ prior knowledge of astronomical concepts and to identify any alternative conceptions that students hold. Directions on how to interpret student responses are also provided. Teachers are encouraged to use these results to inform the selection of appropriate activities from the learning materials. The same instruments can be used at the conclusion of the program to assess the learning outcomes achieved.

How do you access the telescope?

The observatory that houses the CSU remote telescope is located in Bathurst, New South Wales. It is highly likely that the students will be elsewhere. So, they need to conduct research on the objects they want to image before connecting with the telescope. They need to answer such questions as: Will the object be visible online? What exposure time will be needed? How is the telescope moved? How are images taken and saved?

The CD-ROM contains planetarium software that helps students find out what will be visible in the southern sky on the evening(s) they intend to use the telescope. Students and their teacher then construct a bid for telescope time that reflects the process used by astronomers around the world. Booking the telescope is effected by emailing this proposal to the university. The proposal includes a list of the objects students wish to image and the reasons why, to enable university personnel to double-check that the objects will be visible. This helps avoid having disappointed students.

Students are encouraged to keep regular checks on the weather in Bathurst in the lead up to their telescope session. Appropriate weather links are provided on the CSU website, together with access to an all-sky camera attached to the observatory, which provides a 180-degree view of the sky above the telescope.

When the observation session arrives, teachers access the CSU remote telescope. Once connected, they see a desktop very similar to their own computers. Students select the telescope control program and direct the telescope to the celestial object they wish to image. They are able to watch the telescope move under their control via an infra-red camera located inside the observatory. Students then select the digital cameras they have planned to use, set the exposure time and take the picture of their object. Shortly after the exposure is finished, their image is displayed on their screens. Students save the image to the observatory computer and, at the conclusion of the session, all images are emailed to the teacher. Later, students can access and commence processing their images.

What are the educational outcomes?

We have been conducting research projects in both primary and junior secondary schools on the impact using such technology has on students’ perceptions of science, and on their learning outcomes over a number of years. We continue to find that using the telescope in conjunction with the learning materials has a significant impact on astronomical, technical and scientific knowledge. It stimulates student engagement with, and engenders positive attitudes towards, science.

In 2001, we collected data from four primary school classes to assess the impact of using the telescope and the learning materials on knowledge of certain astronomical phenomena. Three of the four classes worked through a number of the activities described in the teachers’ guide, as well as learning how to control the telescope. The teacher of the other class informed us that he had covered astronomy in the previous term and only wanted to use the telescope to obtain images.

Before implementation, the four classes displayed similar levels of knowledge, despite the fact that one class had been exposed to an astronomy unit previously. All students were highly motivated by the fact that they were going to control a telescope over the Internet to obtain pictures. The end-of-unit results, however, showed that there was a significant learning effect for the three classes that had incorporated the learning activities and controlled the telescope, while the class that focused solely on using the telescope did not show any increase in content knowledge. It is not the actual use of the telescope that generates the learning outcomes. Rather, it is the learning activities that generate the outcomes with the control of the telescope acting as the motivator.

In 2004, we conducted a large-scale research project funded by the Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) on the use of remote telescopes in junior secondary science classes. We collected data from over 2000 students from four states. Significant gains in content knowledge and perceptions of science were evident, together with a significant reduction in the alternative conceptions held after their involvement in the program. In addition, students and teachers reported a significant increase in the use of technology during science. Feedback again suggested that it is important to strike a balance between the use of technology and the science content, as students who were focused purely on the technology components did not see the point of the activities.

Students in the more senior years of secondary school use the telescope to conduct their own scientific investigations for school-based science projects. Last year, a year 10 student won the years 10–12 New South Wales Science Teachers’ Association 2005 Physics Prize for his project based on a suspected variable star, using the telescope and procedures involving differential photometry.

Students and teachers from primary and secondary schools in Canada, Holland and the United States continue to request telescope time to capture images from the Southern Hemisphere and, conveniently, access the telescope during their school day.

Visit the CSU remote telescope website at www.csu.edu.au/telescope and view some of the celestial objects in the gallery of images taken by school students from around the world.

References

McKinnon, D. (2001). A Journey through Spaceand Time, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, New South Wales. (With CD-ROM.)

McKinnon, D. (2004). Practical Astronomyfor Years 7, 8 and 9: Using online telescopes inAustralian classrooms teachers’ guide. Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, New South Wales. (With CD-ROM.)

McKinnon, D. (2004). Practical Astronomyfor Years 7, 8 and 9: Using online telescopes inAustralian classrooms student workbook, Charles Sturt University, Bathurst, New South Wales.

Lena Danaia is a PhD student in the School of Teacher Education at Charles Sturt University, Bathurst.

David McKinnon is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education at Charles Sturt University, Bathurst.

The author owns the copyright in this article. For information related to the reuse of this work in any form please contact the publisher denise.quinn@curriculum.edu.au