Science Meets Storytelling in the Primary Classroom: We Share the Same Moon

Science Meets Storytelling in the Primary Classroom: We Share the Same Moon

Presenter: Megan Argo, University of Central Lancashire, The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

This was a poster presented at the 4th Shaw-IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education, organised by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE, http//astro4edu.org).

Astronomy provides many avenues for teaching aspects of the primary curriculum – from science topics such as physics, biology and the climate, to maths, geography, and even art. Working with a storyteller and experienced primary teachers, we developed a set of creative teaching activities based on astronomy topics. Each activity provides background for non-science specialist teachers, a “science story”, detailed instructions, uses simple materials, has cross-curriculum links, and is paired with one or more cultural folk tales which can be used to introduce the topic in a primary classroom. This contribution will illustrate the project, its resources, how we tested the activities, and show how the resources have been used in different contexts.

About the 4th Shaw-IAU Workshop:

The topic for this year’s Shaw-IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education is ‘Leveraging the potential of astronomy in formal education’ and is scheduled to run 15 to 17 November 2022 as a fully virtual event on Hopin as in previous years. This year’s Shaw-IAU Workshop focuses on the role of astronomy in the core regions of formal, primary and secondary, education: How do we teach astronomy as its own subject? What is the role of astronomy in teaching physics or chemistry – or in communicating such a central future topic as climate change? In sessions marked with a * we aim to hear specifically from teachers. We also address the question of how to approach those who set the framework for teaching: How can you get your administration, or at a much higher level: your education ministry, to listen to you? Last but not least we look at how to bridge the divide between the fundamentals that are commonly taught in school and results from cutting-edge research, which tend to be fascinating to students and the general public alike. he workshop was organised by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (http://astro4edu.org). More details can be found on: https://astro4edu.org/shaw-iau/4th-shaw-iau-workshop/

Keep up to date with future Shaw-IAU Workshops and other opportunities at the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education by joining our mailing list https://astro4edu.org/mailing-list/ Follow the IAU OAE on Twitter and Facebook under @astro4edu