linda strubbe: teaching inquiry in nigeria: the west african summer school for young astronomers
TRANSCRIPT
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Teaching Inquiry in Nigeria:
Linda Strubbe (CITA, Toronto)
The West African Summer School for Young
Astronomers
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West African International Summer School for Young
Astronomers
www.astronomynigeria.comwww.sharetheuniverse.org
October 21 - 25, 2013
~70 undergraduate science majors and teachers from around Nigeria & Ghana
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Intro to Nigeria
population: 200 millionLow UN Human Development index
Mean years of schooling = 5
Capital city = Abuja
Single university astronomy programSpeak English
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Team Members
• Mike Reid• Lisa Hunter
• Bonaventure Okere• Daniel Okoh• James Chibueze
• Linda Strubbe• Kelly Lepo• Heidi White• Jielai Zhang
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Goals for the Summer School
- Introduce West African students to astronomy
- Exchange ideas about teaching and learning in West Africa and North America
- Build foundation for sustained astronomy partnership between West Africa and Canada
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Using Results ofScience Education Research
• Teach scientific thinking along with content
• Incorporate assessment to evaluate teaching
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Teaching Activities
• Inquiry-based activity on cosmic distance ladder
• Interactive lectures & problem sets
• Group discussions (e.g., why study astronomy)
• Solar observing & hands-on lab
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Inquiry-based learning: Cosmic Distance Ladder
Goals:Students learn:
• Scales of the Universe
• Parallax method, inverse square law
• How to go from a question to figuring something out on their own
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Inquiry-based learning: Cosmic Distance Ladder
• Students ask their own questions about images
• Students investigate questions in small groups
• Students discuss results in different groups
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Example inquiry path• “What are sunspots?”
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Example inquiry path• “What are sunspots?”‣ “What observations would you want to start answering this question?”
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Example inquiry path• “What are sunspots?”‣ “What observations would you want to start answering this question?”
‣ “How big are sunspots?”
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Example inquiry path• “What are sunspots?”‣ “What observations would you want to start answering this question?”
‣ “How big are sunspots?”
‣ “How do you know the size of the Sun?”
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Example inquiry path• “What are sunspots?”‣ “What observations would you want to start answering this question?”
‣ “How big are sunspots?”
‣ “How do you know the size of the Sun?”‣ “We were taught it.”
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Example inquiry path• “What are sunspots?”‣ “What observations would you want to start answering this question?”
‣ “How big are sunspots?”
‣ “How do you know the size of the Sun?”‣ “We were taught it.”‣ “What if it’s not right? Or when you need to know something nobody already knows?”
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“This process has actually made me realize that I can think and find answers to questions on my own without external help. I can now say I can think like a scientist.”
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Evaluation of the School
• Pre- & Post- surveys:• Astronomy Concept Inventory questions
• Interest in Career as a Scientist
• Written & oral reflections
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Future
• Writing activities to share on astroEDU
• Facebook group & forum
• 2 alumni visiting Toronto
• Preparing to hold school again in October 2014 (awarded IAU/OAD grant)
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• “I learned that…the solution to a problem can be the generation of a new problem.”
• “There’s no question that is too dumb to ask. … Sometimes you find that that question that sounded initially dumb was the same one that will help you to get your answer.”
• “Learning in this method has confirmed that I can study Astronomy.”
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Photo from Godson AbbeyRivers State University of Science and Technology. Port Harcourt. Rivers State, Nigeria
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Collaboration
• started at IAU General Assembly Beijing
• CITA, Dunlap Institute (Toronto)• Centre for Basic Space Science, National Space Research & Development Agency (Nigeria)• Institute for Scientist & Engineer Educators (California)
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Astronomy Concept Survey
• 35 students took before and after• Pre-mean = 6.2 ± 0.5• Post-mean = 9.0 ± 0.4 • test again in 3 mos
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Photo from Kingsley Andrew
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Photo from Andy Iji