Design Thinking with the Moon
Hosted by OSOS, contributed by NUCLIO on 02/04/2020

Introduction

Hello there explorer,

Have you ever looked to the Moon? This activity will guide you to an observational project where you'll record daily observations of our nearest neighbor in space. While you complete your observation log, interact with your community to share knowledge about the moon phases.

Information for teachers

This accelerator was created in the framework of the project - IDiverSE (Islands Diversity for Science Education - 2017-1-PT01-KA201-035919), co-financed by the Erasmus+ agency of the European Union).

logo

This is a STEAM activity that targets students from 5th to 12th grade, but adaptable to younger students. The texts are directed to the teacher. Teachers are invited to explore it, copy it and edit whatever they feel necessary before they share it with their students. 

Supporting documents and translations to other languages can be found through the following link: https://idiverse.eu/design-thinking-with-the-moon/

For any aditional info on this accelerator, please contact [email protected]

 

Learning Objectives

Students will contact the scientific method in an Inquiry-Based activity that will lead them to learn important concepts about the Earth-Moon-Sun system.

While going through this project, students will develop fundamental skills such as problem solving, critical thinking, communication, creativity and collaboration. They will also develop other important skills such as tolerance and respect since they will be collaborating with students from different cultures and different environments.

 

Opportunities to collaborate with other stakeholders

Students will be challenged to interview, discuss and collaborate with their families and other community members as well as to collaborate with participants from different regions of the world. Teachers should encourage students to share their findings in a collaborative platform as well as with family members and any other important stakeholders.

More specifically:

1 - In the Feel phase, students will use a collaborative platform to collect data and compare it with data from other communities. 

2 - In the Imagine phase, students will be advised into bringing the problem to their families and have important discussions about the causes and solutions to the problem at hands. 

3- In the Create phase, students will be encouraged to design a realistic model of the Earth-Moon-Sun system that explains lunar phases and eclipses. 

4 - In the Share phase, students will reach out to the whole community to share their work.

 

Responsible Research and Innovation 

One of the key aspects of OSOS is the inclusion of RRI - Responsible Research and Innovation - principles (RRI-Tools.eu). This is how this accelerator fits in the RRI model: 

 

Governance

This accelerator is based on a fundamental key point which is to teach students what science is and how to make a valid and respectful science research. It highlights the fact that science needs to be shared in order to be valid, it needs to be transparent and collaborative so as to contribute to the development of our society. In this project, students reflect with the community on the problem. Furthermore, students will share their results and conclusions with other communities worldwide, through a platform called globallab. 

Public engagement

Students will interview their communities. After collecting their data, students will discuss with their parents, other family members, friends, community, etc, about the answers they collected. The whole activity will focus on the engagement of students with their community so they can converge on the best answers to their questions.

 

Gender Equality

 

The problematic involved in this project is transversal for all humans in the world, regardless of their gender. At no moment, the gender of the students will be asked or relevant. On the resources created for the teachers advise is given in order to provide equal opportunities, not only for both genders but also among all the different personalities. In the guidelines given to the students an effort is made to use both male and female role models as inspiration, as well as male and female icons and individuals in pictures. Teacher are also advised to find experts of all genders and invite them to work with their students.

Science Education

Students will be engaged in Inquiry-Based activities that will lead them through the scientific method and reasoning. It is expected that after creating their projects, students will have understood what science is and how scientific knowledge can be obtained and communicated. By working with the community and sharing their work in the end, students will bring science education to their community as well as awareness for important scientific questions.

Ethics

During the project students will understand that cooperating and collaborating is a much more valuable effort than competing, and that knowledge and good ideas should be used in an ethical way and shared with others. When in collaboration, Scientists can overcome nearly any obstacle and provide what is necessary for a safe, developing and growing society

Open Access

After finishing their research, students will share all their work with the community, providing a fully open access to their data and conclusions.

Keywords: Moon, Space, Astronomy, Drawing
Learning Objectives: Understand the Earth-Moon-Sun System / Awareness regarding local and global issues / 21st skills / ICT experience / science research in classroom / work with and for the community
Rating: -/5
Views: 2979
Languages: English
Students age group: all ages
Subject domain:
# of students participating: as many as teacher wants
Updated on: 06.04.2020

Comments

There are no Comments yet. Be the first to Post a Comment

In order to be able to post a comment you have to be logged in to the portal. You can login or register a new account by pressing the "Login" button at the top right corner.