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An astronomical scheme of work - GCSE |
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School: The Grove College,
East Sussex |
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Fellow: Linda Dunlop |
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Email: lyndadunlop@yahoo.com |
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Final Report |
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Introduction: |
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GCSE Astronomy is an increasingly popular
option with secondary age students across
the country. I am a teacher at The Grove,
a specialist maths and computing college in
St Leonards-on-Sea, and our entries for GCSE
Astronomy (run as an extra-curricular option
for all ages and abilities) have increased
from 9 to 15 since last year. In addition,
there are students who attend astronomy club
but who do not take the GCSE (mainly sixth
formers). My Gatsby Teaching Fellowship project
evolved from my need to keep these students
engaged and interested in astronomy. As a
non-specialist, my first year had been spent
teaching myself alongside the students; in
my second year I wanted to produce some creative
resources that the students would enjoy using.
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Aim: |
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The aim of this project was to produce a
scheme of work for teaching the Edexcel GCSE
Astronomy Specification in an environment
where time and resources were limited. The
resources contained in the scheme were to:
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includes lesson plans
with background notes |
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incorporates starter and plenary activities
and interactive learning games |
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encourages discovery learning |
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enables students to develop their
ICT skills |
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progresses students knowledge of
history and citizenship in science |
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Development of the Scheme of Work: |
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During my fellowship year,
I have run two GCSE Astronomy classes and
an astronomy (observation) club. The resources
have been created as I have taught the course,
and are described below. In addition, I have
improved my subject knowledge by inviting
astronomers to the college to speak to groups
of students, visited astronomy education professionals,
and led visits to places of astronomical interest. |
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Outcomes: |
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I have produced a set of resources for teaching
Edexcel’s GCSE Astronomy specification,
soon to be available freely on CD-ROM. Resources
have been evaluated as I have taught the scheme,
and I have also asked colleagues at the Grove
and other schools to evaluate them in their
different contexts. Feedback from students
has been positive, and we were able to contribute
to a TES Science Special on teaching astronomy.
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The scheme I have produced
does not contain background notes. Shortly
after beginning the project, I discovered
Nigel Marshall’s Guide to GCSE Astronomy
for Students and Teachers, which contains
most of the information needed by students
to study for the GCSE. Furthermore, Edexcel
produced their own student workbook which
also covers the subject material. I decided
to link resources directly to objectives taken
from the Edexcel specification on a grid,
rather than produce detailed lesson plans.
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The Resources: |
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I have created resources that cater for
a variety of learning styles, incorporate
the use of ICT and provide opportunity for
discovery learning and assessment. |
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The starter and plenary activities include
interactive learning games, including ‘Time
Taboo’, a game where students have to
describe the meaning of keywords to each other
without using certain words, ‘Call My
Astrobluff’ for sorting evidence-based
statements from utter nonsense, ‘Astrobusters’
(astronomy quiz modeled on TV’s ‘Blockbusters’),
loop games, card sorts, wordsearches, cryptic
puzzles and crosswords. |
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Ideas for experimental and observational
work have been included, as have modeling
activities including edible M&M constellation
modeling, the toilet roll solar system, and
the use of animation shop software to describe
phenomena in the universe. |
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Using Excel spreadsheets, I have produced
interactive quizzes to aid assessment. I have
also created level ladders based on Blooms
Taxonomy to enable students to move themselves
on, and provided peer assessment activities.
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In order to download the resources, right-click
the following hyperlinks and save target as.. |
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Outcomes: |
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During my Gatsby Fellowship
year, I have been able to devote time and
resources to improve my teaching of GCSE Astronomy
and enhance the learning experience of the
students. Gatsby funding has been used to
purchase software, time on research-grade
robotic telescopes accessible using the internet,
books and other resources for GCSE Astronomy
and to take students on visits they would
otherwise have been unable to experience.
The profile of astronomy has been raised within
the school, and resources to support the teaching
of GCSE Astronomy and the astronomical content
of AS Science for Public Understanding and
GCSE Science have been created. |
