NSF TE Grant

NSF Teacher Enhancement Project – 2000–2004

Effective and Sustainable Professional Development for Hands-On Universe

Summary

Hands-On Universe™ (HOU) is a leading project in science education reform, recognized by teachers and students around the world, NSF, the Department of Energy, and Department of Defense. HOU professional development programs have produced a cadre of 18 Teacher Resource Agents (TRAs) nationwide who collaborate with universities, observatories and informal science education centers in their regions to lead HOU workshops that engage high school teachers in the innovative educational methods encompassed in HOU.  Already-developed intensive HOU face-to-face teacher workshops, with high TRA-to-new-teacher ratio, have proven highly effective but quite costly and not self-sustaining since the total expense of engagement is out of reach for many teachers and schools.

In this NSF project HOU  developed, piloted and implemented a radically new (as of year 2000) multi-tiered “cafeteria plan” system of professional development including on-line tutorial materials, interactive web-based workshops, and face-to-face workshops. The basic idea is to allow each teacher to choose a method of professional development most suited to his or her needs.

The “Cafeteria”  of Course Options

During this project, classroom teachers learned to implement the HOU curriculum using one of the following methods:

  1. An intensive one-week course (face-to-face) with one or more experienced HOU leaders as instructors, done in the traditional HOU style. See syllabus of this 5-day course.
  2. A self-paced online course (no instructor).
  3. A moderated course (with TRA instructor guidance).
  4. A 1-day face-to-face introductory workshop, supplemented by a self-paced online course (no instructor).
  5. A 1-day face-to-face introductory workshop, supplemented by a moderated online course (led by experienced HOU instructor/TRA).

Participants had the option of getting University of California (UC) Extension graduate credit for the courses.

TERC, team members from Lawrence Hall of Science (LHS), and the HOU TRAs designed the online HOU course (self-paced and moderated) to match the 5-day face-to-face course syllabus. It consists of 12 modules:

  1. Course Overview
  2. Orientation to WebCT
  3. Getting Started with HOU
  4. Introduction to Image Processing
  5. Tour of the Universe
  6. Sky Maps and Sky Motion
  7. Telescopes and CCDs
  8. Searching for Supernovae
  9. Measuring Size
  10. Measuring Brightness
  11. Interfacing with HOU
  12. Classroom Implementation

Evaluation

Total effectiveness of the new HOU professional development system was evaluated by the Third International Math & Science Study (TIMSS) group at Michigan State University (MSU). Participants were assigned randomly to one of the above 5 plans.

Recruitment in the first year (2000) was complicated by the mistake of letting applicants know about the 5 possible “cafeteria” options. In subsequent years (2001, 2002) we were able to overcome with  a  user-friendly, online registration system in which various options for teachers are unfolded, the first option being the randomly assigned course, without the teacher knowing that it was randomly assigned. As incentive for finishing the HOU NSF study requirements (including submission of student performance data) HOU rewarded teachers with stipends and school telescope kits consisting of a small telescope and CCD camera (Astrocam) for class demonstration purposes. Each HOU TRA was provided with a TRA teaching kit (telescope and CCD camera) for use in the teacher courses.

Teachers who fully contributed to the project accomplished the following:

  • Took Teacher Course Pretest
  • Completed HOU Teacher Course
  • Took Teacher Course Posttest
  • Submitted Implementation Plans for teaching
  • Taught HOU courses in high school classrooms
  • Administered surveys, questionnaires, performance tests to students in courses
  • Submitted student performance data results to TIMSS evaluation team

During the 5-year project, 752 teachers were interest in participating and of those, 399 teachers enrolled in one of the five types of HOU courses, 343 teachers had intent to satisfy the requirements of this NSF study, and 121 teachers actually satisfied all requirements of the study in terms of returning questionnaires and student performance results reflected in this evaluation.

Essential result: Student performance on assessment instruments were pretty much the same, no matter which cafeteria plan path the teacher enrolled in.

This is the set of activities recommended for year one (2000) NSF Teacher Enhancement grant study teachers to use with their classes. Teachers can do more with their students, and there will be more than this in their year one HOU Professional Development courses…this is just a minimum recommended set that would constitute an HOU classroom implementation (not in necessary order).

There are two variants of this listing:


1. Listing by concepts (TIMSS Framework) with HOU Unit/Module in parenthesis
Code: IP = Intro to Image Processing; FF = Finding Features; MS = Measuring Size; MB = Measuring Brightness; SS = Supernova Search; Tele/CCD = Telescopes and CCDs

  • Relative sizes among celestial objects (FF)
  • Common celestial objects (FF)
  • Characteristics of celestial bodies (FF)
  • Relative brightness (MB)
  • Constellations (SO)
  • Celestial coordinates (SO)
  • Apparent motion of celestial objects (SO, MS)
  • Sky Maps and Planispheres (SO)
  • Luminosity and Brightness (MB)
  • Speed of Light (MS)
  • Circular motion/Kepler’s Laws (MS)
  • Gravity (MS)
  • Relation between Min/Max and Palette Bar (IP)
  • Finding and opening an image (IP, all others)
  • Using Display Adjustment Tools: Min/Max, Log scale, Zoom/Zoombox, Color Palette (IP, all others)
  • Using Slice (IP, all others)
  • Image Manipulation: Flip, Rotate, Shift, Resize, Add, Subtract, Multiply, Divide (SS)
  • Understanding the basic purpose of telescopes to collect light, detect, resolve and magnify objects (Tele/CCD)
  • Detecting new objects (SS)
  • Detecting and tracking moving objects (MS, SS)
  • Concept of a pixel (Tele/CCD, IP)
  • Pixels and their coordinates (IP)
  • Photons (Tele/CCD)
  • CCD’s (Tele/CCD)
  • Image Information (IP, all others)
  • Observing conditions (MB)
  • Concept of calibration: reference/standard stars, normalization (MB, SS)
  • Size/scale of images (IP, MS)
  • Using slice and pixel scale (MS)
  • Using ratio of an unknown to a known object (IP, MS)
  • Using coordinates and pixel scale (MS)
  • Conversion from angular size to linear size:using arcsecs (MS)
  • Using auto-aperture (MB, SS)
  • Using pixel counts (IP, MB, SS)
  • Proportional reasoning: ratios (IP, MS)
  • Interpreting data in various formats including graphs (all themes)


2. Listing by HOU Unit/Module with concepts (TIMSS Framework) in sublist
Intro to IP – Nominal 1.5 hr
3.1.1 Understanding relationship between Min/max & Palette Bar
3.1.2 Finding and Opening and Image
3.1.3 Using Display Adjustment tools Min/max, log,
. . . . zoom/zoom box, color palette
3.1.4 Using slice (Data Analysis tool)
4.2.2 Concept of pixel
4.2.7 Image Info
4.3.5 Size/scale of images
4.4.1 Using ratio of an unknown to a known object
4.6.3 Using pixel counts
5.2.1 Proportional reasoning: ratios
5.3.1 Interpreting data in various formats, including graphs

Finding Features – Browser’s Guide – Nominal 1 hr
1.1.3 Relative Sizes Among Celestial Objects
1.2.1 Common Celestial Objects
1.2.2 Characterics of Celestial Bodies

Measuring Size

  • Jupiter Crash – Nominal 1 hr
  • Measuring Size Unit – Nominal 2 hrs
  • Tracking Jupiter’s Moons Nominal 2 hrs

1.3.3 Apparent Motion of Celestial Objects
2.1.4 Speed of Light
2.2.1 Circular motion Kepler’s Laws (basic)
2.2.2 Gravity
4.1.2 Detecting and Tracking Moving Objects
4.4.2 Using Slice and pixel scale
4.3.5 Size/scale of images
4.4.1 Using ratio of an unknown to a known object
4.4.3 Using coordinates and pixel scale
4.4.4 Conversion of angular size to linear size
. . . .(understanding arcseconds)
5.2.1 Proportional reasoning: ratios
5.3.1 Interpreting data in various formats, including graphs

Measuring Brightness /Supernova Light Curves – Nominal 3 hours
1.2.4 Relative Brightness
2.1.3 Luminosity and Brightness (basic level)
3.1.5 Image Manipulation (Supernova)
4.1.1 Detecting New Objects
4.3.3 Observing Conditions
4.3.4 Concept of Calibration (Stardard star, reference star)
4.6.2 Using autoaperture
4.6.3 Using pixel counts
5.2.1 Proportional Reasoning
5.3.1 Interpreting data in various formats, including graphs

Telescopes/CCDs — Nominal 1.5 hr
What is a CCD/digital image
(using egg carton or color coding activity or anything else)
3.2.1 Understanding purpose of telescopes to collect light,
. . . . detect, resolve, and magnify object
4.2.2 Concept of pixel
4.2.5 Photons
4.2.6 CCD
4.4.3 Using coordinates and pixel scale

Sky Orientation Nominal 1.5 hr

  • What is RA/DEC (qualitative understanding)
  • Motion of stars and planets (qualitative)

1.3.1 Constellations
1.3.2 Celestial Coordinates
1.3.3 Apparent Motion of Celestial Objects
1.3.4 Sky Maps and Planispheres

WWW interface download an image 1 hr
Total = 15 hrs.

–TRA Workshop June 2000

Miscellaneous

During this project:

  • Vivian Hoette (Yerkes Observatory collaborator)
    conducted testing of videoconference observing sessions.
    US sites were connected with Japanese sites to share images, live if weather permitted.
    This activity was announced to all HOU teachers.
  • HOU astronomy research projects included:
    Asteroid Search (led by TRAs Tim Spuck and Hughes Pack) and
    Supernova Search (led by TRA Glenn Reagan)
Back to Top
MENU