Teacher Information
The Charlene Heisler Prize provides an opportunity for your students to develop their understanding and interest in astronomy whilst improving their research and IT skills. By allowing for either group or individual entries it can be incorporated into your class programs in a number of ways. Students can undertake work on entries as part of a normal class task or as an extension activity.
Theme for 2005
The 2005 theme is How has our view of the Universe changed in the last 100 years? This is deliberately broad as it seeks to encourage students to consider different responses and strands. In setting the task to your students you may wish to start with a group discussion or brainstorm session.
Possible ways in which students can approach this theme include:
- Historical or chronological coverage of key developments and discoveries in astronomy.
- How astronomical discoveries have impacted on philosophical or social views of our place in space.
- Focusing on one or more key technologies that have led to major astronomical discoveries.
- Comparing observations of one or two types of astronomical object in different wavebands such as radio, infrared, optical, ultraviolet, X-ray and gamma-ray.
Encourage your students to develop their own approaches or specify an approach that fits in best with your class program.
IT Skills & Cross-Curriculum Learning
Students entering the Charlene Heisler Prize must present their work as a series of web pages. The competition does not prescribe how these are written as this is very much dependent on the software and expertise available at individual schools. Many students already have experience in writing their own web pages either at home or as part of IT lessons. If you are unsure of their level of experience chat with the IT staff at your school. Consider running the task in collaboration with the IT department.
Other cross-curriculum opportunities may exist with Mathematics, History, English or even Visual Arts departments depending on what approach the students may take in interpreting the scheme. Examples include the use of astronomy in literature, mathematical modelling on the changes in scale and distance in the Universe and how technological changes in astronomy have been influenced or led by other events such as war or the Cold War.
Apart from using a text editor or a more specific web writing software students may use other programs such as spreadsheets, word processors, presentation and graphics packages to produce material for web pages. Many software packages provide the ability to save as html or export to the web. Check the Help pages of the program if unsure how to do this.
Other Information
Multiple Entries from a School
If you are considering using this competition as a task for a whole class or year group we would request that you vet the entries first and limit the number of submissions from your school to those you judge to be the best few. We ask that schools submit no more than five group and five individual entries.
Feedback and Ideas
We welcome feedback from teachers on how you use this competition with your students. Please let us know of any innovative approaches, problems or successes that you have. We would like to see the Charlene Heisler Prize become an annual event and an integrated component of you school program. The theme may change yearly so as to provide fresh challenges to your students. Any suggestions or comments may be sent to the ATNF's Education Officer, Robert Hollow, via the means listed below.
Further Information
Should you require any more information about the Charlene Heisler Prize or entries please contact:
Robert Hollow
ATNF Education Officer
Email:Robert.Hollow@csiro.au
phone (02) 9372 4247
fax: (02) 9272 4444