Curriculum Development Project
The general blurb for this project goes like this:
We've had some great project reports for this one, where educators have carefully described excellent lesson plans or curricula and included creative approaches to the material and really useful resource lists. While it hasn't always been possible to trial the work on students, the best reports have included plans on how that trial will be carried out and strategies for evaluating success or otherwise of the trial.
For this project, don't bite off more than you can chew: a carefully thought-out report on a few creative lessons is likely to read just as well as or better than a report which tries to cover a semester's worth of classes.
Make sure that you plan the concepts you want your students to understand, and include that plan in your report, showing how those underlying concepts are linked to the factual topics you cover. A lesson plan on features of the night sky, for example, should also be planned to convey concepts like helio-centred solar system, day and night, seasons, precession, etc. Also pay careful attention to the age & interests of your target audience.
While there are a lot of education resources out there on the web, there are not so many astronomy education resources. Here are a few links that might help you:
You can also try to Astronomy Education newsgroup of SAO!
Don't forget to use me as a resource too. If you're stuck or just need a little
guidance, feel free to email me and I'll be happy to help out.
Good luck!
This site is to help those of you who have chosen to do the Curriculum Development
project for Swinburne Astronomy Online.
As an educator, you are the best person to design this project to suit your situation. You may choose to design a curriculum, lesson plan or sample class(es) for the teaching of astronomy, and trial your work on students if appropriate/possible.
To achieve high marks for this project your report would use modern science education research literature to justify your curriculum content. The supervisor can direct you to helpful resources if needed. Supporting materials may include concept and content maps or equivalent, resources list, assessment instructions and instructions & tips for teachers.
email: smaddison-at-swin.edu.au
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