A High School Course for a wide Range of Student Abilities

Summary

Introduction

Astronomy is, inherently, a high-interest subject. However, at the high school level there is a tendency to teach astronomy using higher-level abstractions and complex mathematics. This teaching approach thus eliminates a large number of students who have difficulties with abstractions and complex mathematics, thereby restricting the study of astronomy to a rather select group of students.

The astronomy course offered since 1976 at Wauwatosa West High School was developed to reach a wide range of students with differing abilities. The prerequisite for this one-semester elective course is the successful completion of one year of high school science. Most of the students enrolled in this course are high school juniors and seniors, ages 16-18. Since algebra is not a prerequisite, the “math phobic” students have been attracted to the course. The higher ability students enjoy the challenges posed by astronomy and often take this course as a supplement to their physics classes. Students who normally have difficulty with science suddenly discover that they can succeed in astronomy, and we have introduced a whole new group of students to this high-interest subject.

Activities

Our astronomy course focuses on hands-on activities, which can illustrate higher-level abstractions in a more concrete manner. In particular, we use Project STAR activities, which were developed at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Our text is also the Project STAR textbook (Coyle, et al, 1993). The following subsection will illustrate some of these hands-on activities.

Orientation: Celestial Sphere

[Slide: exterior of Wauwatosa West High School] Wauwatosa West High School is located in a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on the western shore of Lake Michigan.