<title>An optics education program designed around experiments with small telescopes</title>

Abstract

The National Optical Astronomy Observatory has led the development of a new telescope kit for kids as part of a strategic plan to interest young children in science. This telescope has been assembled by tens of thousands of children nationwide, who are now using this high-quality telescope to conduct optics experiments and to make astronomical observations. The Galileoscope telescope kit and its associated educational program are an outgrowth of the NSF sponsored "Hands-On Optics" (HOO) project, a collaboration of the SPIE, the Optical Society of America, and NOAO. This project developed optics kits and activities for upper elementary students and has reached over 20,000 middle school kids in afterschool programs. HOO is a highly flexible educational program and was featured as an exemplary informal science program by the National Science Teachers Association. Our new "Teaching with Telescopes" program builds on HOO, the Galileoscope and other successful optical education projects.

Turning Eyes to the Big Sky project: learning optics in middle school

“…At any grade level, instructional approaches that allow students to reason about phenomena they experience firsthand can help them develop deep understanding of difficult concepts 16,17 . The telescope provides an experiential way for students to learn key concepts in optics 18 and may remove yet another conceptual difficulty that students encounter. Instruction on light often couples it with instruction on how the eye receives light from objects, a concept difficult for students to understand 6,11 .…”

“…SPIE provided 300 additional simple refracting telescope kits for the project, resulting in approximately one telescope kit per student in each classroom, and provided funding that allowed TEBS to double the other materials for each classroom. Edelman Financial Services provided 75 Galileoscopes, 50-mm-diameter objective refracting telescope kits 18 , which were distributed five per classroom. A number of organizations donated astronomy and science handouts and posters to classrooms.…”

Teaching and learning geometric optics in middle school through the Turning Eyes to the Big Sky project

“…17, 18 The telescope provides an experiential way for students to learn key concepts in optics 19 and may remove yet another conceptual difficulty that students encounter. 19 Instruction on light is often coupled with instruction on how the eye receives light from objects, a concept difficult for students to understand.…”

“…19 Instruction on light is often coupled with instruction on how the eye receives light from objects, a concept difficult for students to understand. 7,12 Students are better able to interpret the propagation of light when they consider it independently of sight.…”

“…Edelman Financial Services provided 75 Galileoscopes (50-mm diameter objective refracting telescope kits), which were distributed five per classroom. 19 A number of organizations donated astronomy and science handouts and posters to classrooms.…”