Engaging Students with New Data-Driven Astronomy Investigations


Sunday, 08 January 2023 8 a.m. — noon MST

Seattle Convention Center

Star Educators
Ardis Herrold, Ed Prather (Rubin Observatory/ University of Arizona)
Registration: https://aas.org/meetings/aas241/registration

Looking for a way to actively engage your students in learning core ideas in astronomy? Rubin Observatory’s Education and Public Outreach team has developed a suite of classroom-tested online investigations that incorporate a unique combination of data-representations, simulations and analysis tasks to guide learners’ exploration of contemporary astronomy data. Each standalone investigation comes with a teacher guide, formative/summative assessments (think-pair-share, pre/post, and open-ended), and NGSS support (phenomenon, rubrics, etc.). The investigations are designed for novice learners from advanced middle school through the introductory college level and cover topics ranging from Hubble's Law to Hazardous Asteroids. This workshop will take a deep dive into an investigation on small bodies of the Solar System that can enhance students’ data analysis and evidence-based reasoning abilities, and their understanding of Kepler’s Laws, Newton’s Laws, gravity, and the formation of the Solar System. Participants will have time to explore this investigation and discuss ideas for successfully integrating it into their classroom.