8th Graders do Astro-Imaging.
10.20.10
posted by: krueff
Tom and Joe Ribaudo, Oct 18th & Oct 19th, working with the Edison 8th graders on Astro-imaging.
[CLICK ON THE PICTURE TO VIEW FULL IMAGE]
Here are the 8th grader’s astro-images, the “M” followed by some number, indicates the Messier object the student worked with, and they added their initials to personalize their work.
What they did: The 8th graders worked together to each find a Messier object using Google Sky and then worked with the Aladin astronomy software to create an image (Google Sky & Aladin are both free & online). The students then doctored the colors in RGB images they made with the software, put their initials on their final images, and uploaded them to NDeRC’s Flickr.
October 20th, 2010 at 2:13 pm
Kate, Thanks for giving us a window into this event. The astro-images seem well done. I hope the students’ parents have a chance to see your blog and their childrens’ images. I’ll try to make that happen by contacting Karen Morris. Pat
October 20th, 2010 at 3:11 pm
Thanks for your help yesterday, Kate. It was no surprise to me at one point when I asked who was ready to move on and the half-dozen students in front of you had already completed the next step:)
Let’s do a debriefing regarding how we might use this astroimaging experience, or some distant cousin of it, in what variety of contexts. Pretty plainly it can be done and (from comments received) enjoyed by 8th graders. My intended participant outcomes were three-fold: to introduce them to some interesting and free tools; to have them create and publish something of beauty related to science; and to have them meet some cool people (you and Joe:) who were doing science in the same area in which they had just contributed something of value (not something true, but something beautiful.) What other aims might we achieve? What other means might be more effective? For what ages, in how much time? In alignment with which Indiana Standards? Producing which 21st Century skills? Pointing toward which future opportunities? And how can we measure any of these outcomes?
What I like about students publishing these images is that the outcome is measurable: they can indeed use these tools. They began with Earth, found Sky, found the Aladin applet, loaded data, used Jing to save their image, and uploaded it in Flickr. This is proof of exposure to tools. There is only some suggestion of accomplishment, since we were there to help the students. I’d like to have the do their first images together, and then a second one of their own choosing, flying solo, with the results posted, with an explanation of what they found attractive, where they found information about the object, and questions they had, all in a wiki page. That would be evidence of having mastered the basics of these six tools (Earth, Sky, Aladin, Jing, Flickr, Wikispaces.)
Ideas? Anyone? The project home is here, btw: http://astro.michianastem.org/Edison+Astroimaging+Big+Picture.