Bringing The Universe Into The Classroom: Integrating Astronomy Through Math Problems
TalkDuring Astronomy Education in Schools in Practice
6th Shaw-IAU Workshop
Eleen Hammer (Friedrich Schiller University Jena)
It is unfortunate that not all school students have access to Astronomy education. To address this gap, this project develops mathematics problems centered around astronomy, aimed at students in grades 5 through 10. By using astronomical facts and laws as the basis for these problems, it is ensured that students engage with celestial concepts, even if astronomy is not part of their formal curriculum. In the talk exemplary problems will be shown to illustrate how astronomical content can be integrated into math problems. The problems are created to be accessible for teachers with minimal or no background in astronomy, allowing them to use them with confidence. Additionally, the mathematics problems have been tested in schools, and the results will be presented.
About Eleen Hammer
Eleen Hammer is a secondary school teacher for mathematics and physical education in Germany. She studied astronomy as her third subject and graduated with honors. After that she received the Thuringian Graduate Scholarship for her doctoral thesis project on which she currently works at the Research Group Teaching Methodology in Physics and Astronomy at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany. In addition, she works as an astronomy teacher at a public secondary school. Her research focuses on teaching astronomy through mathematics problems.
