Investigating Astronomy: A Unique High School Curriculum for All Students

利用精心设计的动手活动、科学图像和可视化以及长期调查的顺序，《调查天文学》阐述了天文学研究的国家科学教育标准和国家框架。这六个模块可以一起用于为期一年或一学期的高中天文学课程，也可以单独作为地球或物理科学课程的一部分。这六个模块涉及引力吸引系统、能量转换、物质结构、空间和时间、宇宙的演化、我们如何知道我们所知道的以及天文学的历史等基本概念。每个模块都受到一个挑战--总体调查--的推动，该挑战为活动中包含的天文和物理内容提供了现实生活中的应用，并为学生提供了一个探索与科学家接触的相同基本想法和概念的场所。这些资料有英语和西班牙语两种版本，是专门为高中开发的第一门天文学课程。随同他们的还有教师指南、教师专业发展网站以及家庭和社区材料，包括与业余天文学家的联系。外部评估中嵌入的一个研究部分衡量了脚手架对学生学习科学概念的影响。

Using a carefully designed sequence of hands-on activities, scientific images and visualizations, and long-term investigations, "Investigating Astronomy" addresses the national science education standards and state frameworks for the study of astronomy. The six modules can be used together for a year- or semester - long high school astronomy course or separately as part of Earth or physical science courses. The six modules address overarching ideas of gravitational attracting systems, energy transformation, structure of matter, space and time, evolution of the universe, how we know what we know and history of astronomy. Each module is driven by a challenge -- an overarching investigation -- that provides real-life application for the astronomical and physical content contained in the activities and offers students a venue for exploring the same fundamental ideas and concepts that engage scientists. These materials, to be available in English and Spanish, provide the first astronomy course developed especially for high schools. They are accompanied by a teacher guide, a teacher professional development website, and family and community materials, including connections to amateur astronomers. A research component embedded in the external evaluation measures the effect of scaffolding on student learning of scientific concepts.