From Class to Universe

Abstract

Astronomy or earth science education stays within classroom walls. The universe laboratory is very large. In this study, projects and activities that will enable teachers to carry their students to out-of-school learning environments and enable them to develop cooperation among themselves are presented. We have prepared activities that will enable academicians who teach in the field of earth sciences and astronomy at universities to meet with teachers. These include 5 Science fairs, 3 Nature and Science Schools, 6 astronomy seminars and numerous workshops and sky observing fests. Our Astronomy seminar includes a 3-day training activity conducted by academicians working in the field of Astrophysics, science education and leading teachers in their fields. These educational activities were carried out with the support of local municipalities. It was paid attention to the accommodation of the teachers in the same place and social activities were given importance. The aim is not only for teachers to have scientific knowledge and use it in the classroom, but also to develop collaborations. Teachers and academics developed new studies together. In the field of light pollution, the activity “Disappearing Darkness: The Dirty Side of Light” is an example. Light pollution measurements were made with the SQM device once in each school. In schools, teachers and students contributed to a real scientific study. Thus, data flow was provided to the light pollution map of Turkey. The themes of 3 of the science festivals are expert seminars on astronomy and technology, workshops, demonstration experiments, and fun applications. After all the work, social media networks and organizations began where teachers would share the activities. Event activity announcements were shared on these social media accounts. The last two of the science festivals were held in the field of STEM education approach, with the contribution of all teachers living in the region. On the other hand, a village school, which was found to be not interested in STEM professions, was invited. These students first met online, then face-to-face with men and women working in STEM professions on the day of the festival. An increase was observed in students' interest in professions. In addition to the excavations in the science center garden, an open-air rock museum was created by the municipality and teachers and students can still visit this museum. We participated in the activity organized by an academician with academicians at his university 4 times. Here we examined places such as the Geopark area and the canyon. We collected rocks at every point. We brought our rocks to our schools and made examinations with our students. Since we participated from different cities, we extended the education to our colleagues and students in our own regions. We gave trainings on the hardness of the rocks we learned, the geological times of the universe, the effect of landforms on vegetation. We organized field trips in our provinces. During these trips, we enabled our students to collect rock samples and create their own collections.