Before receiving funding for its national expansion
program, Project ASTRO had intensive studies conducted of
its pilot project. These studies showed that the pilot
was a successful model for bringing astronomers and their
expertise into schools and other educational settings. Detail: Structure and Scope
Both astronomers and teachers surveyed said that their
knowledge of strategies for effectively teaching
astronomy had increased: astronomers felt that they knew
much more about student learning;and teachers felt that
their content knowledge had increased.
The studies indicated that commitment and
follow-through by astronomers and teachers was strong:
13% of astronomers visited their schools and worked with
their teacher-partners more than 10 times over the course
of a year; 26% visited 5-10 times; 26% visited four
times; and 15% visited less than four times.
Project ASTRO also had a positive impact on teachers:
91% of teachers felt that they were teaching more
astronomy as a result of ASTRO, and 48% felt that they
were teaching more science as a result of ASTRO.
A follow-up survey found that 62% of the pilot
astronomer-teacher teams had continued their partnership
one to two years later. And, more than 90% of teachers
and astronomers said that they planned to continue their
involvement with astronomy education in some other way.
Attempts to pinpoint what aspects of Project ASTRO
contributed to successful partnerships indicated the
following:
- Partners making a commitment and having
sufficient time
- The intense focus on one or two classes of
students rather than a whole school
- The time that was taken by partners to plan in
advance
- The care excercised in locating schools with good
administrative support
- The partners' focusing of their mutual goals
across the visits and during each visit
- Having one partner with a clear vision of how
best to fit the astronomy activities into the
curriculum
- How efforts are made to include the community,
such as local amateur astronomers, planetariums,
and/or science centers
- The use of active, hands-on learning
Many of these factors are discussed in greater depth
in the Project ASTRO How-To Manual for Astronomers and
Teachers. Detail: Supporting
Materials
