GHOU

Exploring the Hands-On Universe Project

Astronomy

“Reinberger Hall of Astronomy” by Award Photography. Creative Commons licence (CC BY-NC)

Following on from my previous blog post, ‘Summary – Minds on Fire: Open Education, the Long Tail, and Learning 2.0‘, I am going to present a more detailed insight into one of the innovations mentioned in the Seely Brown & Adler (2008) paper, the ‘Hands-On Universe’ project.

Since the publishing of the paper in 2008, the project has been renamed as the Global Hands-On Universe (GHOU) project and is described as:

…an educational program that enables students to investigate the Universe while applying tools and concepts from science, math, and technology. Global Hands-On Universe (GHOU) joins efforts from all around the world to train teachers on the use of modern tools and resources for science education and engage students in international scientific projects. 

(G-HOU, no date)

Project background

In the 1990s, Carl Pennypacker a supernova research astronomer at the University of California Berkeley asked a group of astronomers and educators to share their ideas on how astronomy education could be improved. Stemming from these discussions was the idea of making real telescopes and telescope images available to teachers and students. This would also require the provision of image processing software tools, as well as co-operation among astronomers and observatories to make telescopic instruments available for use by schools (G-HOU, no date).

Following the development of curriculum guides for teachers and students regarding the use of image processing software and observatory images in classroom activities, hundreds of teachers were trained in the curriculum techniques. Over the years, the project grew and expanded beyond the United States, leading to the formation of the non-profit Global Hands-On Universe (GHOU) Association with partners worldwide (G-HOU, no date).

Project activity

The GHOU project continues to operate in partnership with over 20 countries across the world. Current projects include:

  • Galileo Teacher Training Program (GTTP) – trains teachers in the effective use and transfer of astronomy tools and existing resources that are freely available on the Internet, into classroom science curricula.
  • Universe Quest – provides girls ages 13-16 with a unique opportunity to learn IT skills in the context of studying the universe with modern technology.

Research

Since 2008, the following research has been published on the project:

Doran, R., Melchior, A.-L., Boudier, T., Pacôme, Delva, Ferlet, R., Almeida, M. L. T., Barbosa, D., Gomez, E., Pennypacker, C., Roche, P. and Roberts, S. (2012) ‘Astrophysics datamining in the classroom: Exploring real data with new software tools and robotic telescopes’, Physics Education; Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics, p. 10, [online] Available from: http://arxiv.org/abs/1202.2764 (Accessed 11 February 2016).

Faye, S. and Faye, M. (2011) ‘Teaching astronomy and astrophysics with Hands-On-Universe and SalsaJ: stars, planets, exoplanets and dark matter’, Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union, Cambridge University Press, 5(S260), pp. 715–719, [online] Available from: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S1743921311003073 (Accessed 11 February 2016).

Fitzgerald, M. T., Hollow, R., Rebull, L. M., Danaia, L. and McKinnon, D. H. (2014) ‘A Review of High School Level Astronomy Student Research Projects Over the Last Two Decades’, Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia, Cambridge University Press, 31, p. e037, [online] Available from: http://journals.cambridge.org.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/abstract_S1323358014000307 (Accessed 11 February 2016).