IRIS opens pupils' eyes to real space research

Hatfield, Peter; Furnell, Will; Shenoy, Abhishek; Fox, Elliot; Parker, B.; Thomas, L.; Rushton, Elizabeth A. C.

doi:10.1093/astrogeo/atz046

Cited by 6 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…It facilitates students to undertake a range of investigative research projects from a varied portfolio of options. For example, these projects have included CERN@School (Whyntie, 2016;Whyntie et al, 2015Whyntie et al, , 2016, where students have been found to have positive experiences, developing research and data analysis skills, and developing wider skills such as collaboration and communication (Hatfield et al, 2019;Parker et al, 2019). Teachers who have facilitated projects for their students report that the experiences produced personal and wider benefits around:…”

Section: Institute For Research In Schools Projectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigative Research Projects for Students in Science: The State of the Field and a Research Agenda

Reiß¹,

Sheldrake²,

Lodge³

2023

Can. J. Sci. Math. Techn. Educ.

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One of the ways in which students can be taught science is by doing science, the intention being to help students understand the nature, processes, and methods of science. Investigative research projects may be used in an attempt to reflect some aspects of science more authentically than other teaching and learning approaches, such as confirmatory practical activities and teacher demonstrations. In this article, we are interested in the affordances of investigative research projects where students, either individually or collaboratively, undertake original research. We provide a critical rather than a systematic review of the field. We begin by examining the literature on the aims of science education, and how science is taught in schools, before specifically turning to investigative research projects. We examine how such projects are typically undertaken before reviewing their aims and, in more detail, the consequences for students of undertaking such projects. We conclude that we need social science research studies that make explicit the possible benefits of investigative research projects in science. Such studies should have adequate control groups that look at the long-term consequences of such projects not only by collecting delayed data from participants, but by following them longitudinally to see whether such projects make any difference to participants’ subsequent education and career destinations. We also conclude that there is too often a tendency for investigative research projects for students in science to ignore the reasons why scientists work in particular areas and to assume that once a written report of the research has been authored, the work is done. We therefore, while being positive about the potential for investigative research projects, make specific recommendations as to how greater authenticity might result from students undertaking such projects.

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Section: Institute For Research In Schools Projectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigative Research Projects for Students in Science: The State of the Field and a Research Agenda

Reiß¹,

Sheldrake²,

Lodge³

2023

Can. J. Sci. Math. Techn. Educ.

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“…All of the materials covered at ThaiPASS'18 and 19 are available at the E. A. Milne Centre's GitHub webpages 7 . These materials comprise Jupyter notebooks and data files, which formed the basis of activities at ThaiPASS, as well as basic introductory tutorials consisting of scaffolded notebooks with a variety of simple tasks.…”

Section: Content Of Thaipassmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…• nucleosynthesis, the production of elements and isotopes in stars; • galactic chemical evolution (GCE), the process by which material synthesised by stars is mixed into the wider galaxy; • galaxies and dark matter, which discusses how the rotation curves of galaxies lead to the idea that there is unseen matter in the Universe; • supernova, describing how stars explode and how ejecta material spreads out into space. 7 https://github.com/Milne-Centre/ThaiPASS2018 and https://github.com/Milne-Centre/ThaiPASS2019 respectively. 8 Detail of astronomy education in Thailand (and many other countries) can be found at the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education www.haus-der-astronomie.de/oae/worldwide.…”

Section: Astronomy Contentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Project ThaiPASS: international outreach blending astronomy and Python

et al. 2021

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We present our outreach program, the Thailand-UK Python+Astronomy Summer School (ThaiPASS), a collaborative project comprising UK and Thai institutions and assess its impact and possible application to schools in the United Kingdom. Since its inception in 2018, the annual ThaiPASS has trained around 60 Thai high-school students in basic data handling skills using Python in the context of various astronomy topics, using current research from the teaching team. Our impact assessment of the 5 day summer schools shows an overwhelmingly positive response from students in both years, with over 80% of students scoring the activities above average in all activities but one. We use this data to suggest possible future Original Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

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“…IRIS (Institute for Research in Schools) is a UK charity formally launched in March 2016 (IRIS, 2020), building on the previous CERN@School project conceived in 2007 (Whyntie et al, 2016;Parker et al, 2019). While IRIS' projects cover all the sciences, current physics projects include the aforementioned CERN@School, Higgs Hunters (Barr et al, 2018), LUCID (Furnell et al, 2019;Hatfield et al, 2019), and Webb Cosmic Mining (in preparation for the James Webb Space Telescope). They have rapidly expanded across the UK since formation, having worked in some capacity with over 230 schools as of 2020.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating participants' experience of extended interaction with cutting-edge physics research through the PRiSE “research in schools” programme

et al. 2021

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Abstract. Physics in schools is distinctly different from, and struggles to capture the excitement of, university research-level work. Initiatives where students engage in independent research linked to cutting-edge physics within their school over several months might help mitigate this, potentially facilitating the uptake of science in higher education. However, how such initiatives are best supported remains unclear and understudied. This paper evaluates a provision framework, Physics Research in School Environments (PRiSE), using survey data from participating 14–18-year-old students and their teachers to understand their experience of the programme. The results show that PRiSE appears to provide much more positive experiences than typical university outreach initiatives due to the nature of the opportunities afforded over several months, which schools would not be able to provide without external input. The intensive support offered is deemed necessary, with all elements appearing equally important. Based on additional feedback from independent researchers and engagement professionals, we also suggest the framework could be adopted at other institutions and applied to their own areas of scientific research, something which has already started to occur.

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IRIS opens pupils' eyes to real space research

Abstract: Peter Hatfield and students from the Institute for Research in Schools describe their latest results and describe how school students are contributing to real research.

Cited by 6 publications

References 7 publications

Investigative Research Projects for Students in Science: The State of the Field and a Research Agenda

Investigative Research Projects for Students in Science: The State of the Field and a Research Agenda

Project ThaiPASS: international outreach blending astronomy and Python

Evaluating participants' experience of extended interaction with cutting-edge physics research through the PRiSE “research in schools” programme

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