Shaw-IAU Workshops by the OAE

It has been shown that including modern science in the classroom can help students to understand the scientific landscape of the world today. The fast evolving field of exoplanet research is a promising subject to explore this idea through. In this project, we investigate methods of using expertise from both scientific researchers and teachers to iteratively develop hands-on lesson materials about exoplanet clouds and lightning for 16 - 18 year olds. These topics were selected as they are currently being researched by the CHAMELEON network. Additionally, these phenomena also occur on earth and can be linked to existing school curricula topics. The development of these lessons makes use of scientist-teacher partnerships, inquiry-based learning and the model of educational reconstruction.

Biography:

Oriel Marshall is a third year joint PhD student at the universities of Copenhagen and Antwerpen. She is part of the CHAMELEON innovative training network which focuses on modeling exoplanets and protoplanetary disks. Her role within this network is creating and assessing teaching materials based on the topics within the network. Oriel has worked with and developed hands-on astrophysics learning materials in many capacities prior to her current PhD project. These include the thesis project of her astrophysics masters project at the University of St Andrews, and during her time working with Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and subsequently for the ESA CHEOPs mission.