Embedding Astrophysics Within the High School: Martin Hendry at the OAE’s 4th Shaw-IAU Workshop
1Title: Embedding modern astrophysics within the high school physics curriculum in Scotland.
Summary: Scottish high school pupils study cutting-edge topics in astrophysics, relativity and cosmology.
This was a talk given at the 4th Shaw-IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education, organised by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE, http//astro4edu.org).
For more than a decade the national high school physics qualifications in Scotland have included key units on astrophysics, quantum and particle physics, cosmology, and relativity. The focus of these topics has been not so much what scientists have learned, but how they have done so – thus giving students (and teachers!) greater insight into general principles of scientific research, including critical thinking and problem-solving skills. The focus on open-ended enquiry also aligned with the “Curriculum for Excellence”: the comprehensive reform of Scottish education carried out across all subject areas. Here I reflect on the experience of re-vamping the content and principles of high school physics education, in the context of the wider educational reform introduced in Scottish schools.
About Martin Hendry:
Martin Hendry is Professor of Gravitational Astrophysics and Cosmology at the University of Glasgow, where he is also Clerk of Senate and Vice-Principal of the University. Martin is a senior member of the LISA Consortium and the LIGO Scientific Collaboration, for which he chairs the LSC Communications and Education Division. His principal research interests are in gravitational-wave cosmology and gravitational lensing. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the Institute of Physics, for which he has currently or recently chaired the Learned Societies Group and IOP Scotland Education Committee respectively.
About the 4th Shaw-IAU Workshop:
The topic for this year’s Shaw-IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education is ‘Leveraging the potential of astronomy in formal education’ and is scheduled to run 15 to 17 November 2022 as a fully virtual event on Hopin as in previous years. This year’s Shaw-IAU Workshop focuses on the role of astronomy in the core regions of formal, primary and secondary, education: How do we teach astronomy as its own subject? What is the role of astronomy in teaching physics or chemistry – or in communicating such a central future topic as climate change? In sessions marked with a * we aim to hear specifically from teachers. We also address the question of how to approach those who set the framework for teaching: How can you get your administration, or at a much higher level: your education ministry, to listen to you? Last but not least we look at how to bridge the divide between the fundamentals that are commonly taught in school and results from cutting-edge research, which tend to be fascinating to students and the general public alike. he workshop was organised by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (http://astro4edu.org/). More details can be found on: https://astro4edu.org/shaw-iau/4th-shaw-iau-workshop/
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