Interdisciplinary Links Between The Curriculum And The Big Ideas In Astronomy: A Case Study In Chile

Talk
Astronomy across disciplines
3rd Shaw-IAU Workshop
Tuesday Oct. 12, 2021
UTC: 3 p.m. - 3:10 p.m. America/New_York: 11 a.m.- 11:10 a.m.
Wednesday Oct. 13, 2021
UTC: 10 a.m. - 10:10 a.m. America/New_York: 6 a.m.- 6:10 a.m.

In this talk, we propose that the Big Ideas in Astronomy (Retr et al., 2019) can be used as a framework to relate different science topics in the curriculum to up-to-date astronomical ideas, thus allowing the development of astronomy literacy at school through interdisciplinary links. We present a case study in Chile, where we characterized the opportunities to learn astronomy within the science curriculum from grades 1 to 12 and identified all learning objectives connected with the Big Ideas. We show the development of two interdisciplinary classroom units in collaboration with Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Arts, and elementary science school teachers. Finally, we discuss the main achievements and challenges we faced in this project and some ideas for the future.

About Lara Rodrigues

Lara is currently a Ph.D. candidate in Astronomy Education at PUC-Chile, with research interests in professional development programs, pre-service teachers, and school curriculum. She is also teaching a stellar astrophysics course for pre-service science and math teachers at UMCE. Her former experience in astronomy education includes teaching and organizing professional development programs, summer courses for children and adults, guiding observatory visits, and giving inflatable planetary presentations. She is also an astronomer and physics teacher with experience in stellar astrophysics research and teaching in secondary education.

Watch a recording of this talk (external link)