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Peer Reviewed Article. rtsre.org/ojs

Capturing the Cosmos: Teaching Astronomy (andmore) through Astrophotography in Middle SchoolSaeed Salimpour1*

AbstractThe Universe provides a canvas for exploration, it sets the stage waiting to be captured andexplored by imagination and science. Its capacity to provide innate aesthetically pleasingvisuals and the mysteries they hold, piques the curiosity of everyone. This paper providesan overview and results from an astronomy elective as implemented in a middle schoolclassroom over the course of 11 weeks, at a non-governmental school in regional Victoria,Australia. Students who previously had no exposure to astronomy or image processingused the Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO) network of robotic remote telescopes to captureimages of astronomical objects and processed them to create colour images. The preliminaryLearning Progression (LP) focusing on inquiry skills and the results of the student project arehighlighted.KeywordsAstronomy Education — Image processing — Robotic Telescopes — Remote Telescopes —Middle School Science

1Deakin University, Burwood, Victoria, Australia*Corresponding author: [email protected]

Received 2001 January 10; revised 2001 January 16; accepted 2001 January 19

IntroductionThe beauty of the night sky is one of the most awe-inspiring sights, the numerous points of light scat-tered across a seemingly infinite ocean of black,with the fuzzy white band of Milky Way majesti-cally punctuating the blackness. Anyone who hashad the opportunity to observe the night sky awayfrom the suffocating lights of the city, can attest tothis humbling and majestic experience.

Our eyes, despite their capabilities, are blindto some of the most fascinating objects containedwithin the observable Universe. Only sensitive to asliver of the Electromagnetic (EM) Spectrum, called

Visible Light, our eyes are ill-equipped to detectthe spectrum of visual symphony produced by themyriad objects in the Universe – galaxies, nebula,clusters of stars, planets and much more. An excerptof this symphony is seen in long exposure imagesof the night sky, revealing the astounding beautyand mystery hidden to our eyes.

The dawn of photography in the mid-19th cen-tury and its application to Astronomy (Ostermanet al., 2007), opened our eyes to some very ex-traordinary, enigmatic and awe-inspiring vistas. As-trophotography is no longer limited to big researchobservatories. The affordability of telescopes, imag-ing cameras and easy access to software (Covington,1999; Gomez and Fitzgerald, 2017; Han et al., 2018;

Capturing the Cosmos: Teaching Astronomy (and more) through Astrophotography in MiddleSchool — 2/17

Legault, 2014) has allowed amateurs to “Capturethe Cosmos”, or rather the objects it contains inastounding beauty. These images are not only aes-thetically captivating, they are also scientificallyrich. Although astrophotography started with theaim of recording scientific information from astro-nomical objects, it has serendipitously highlightedthe innate aesthetics of astronomical objects.

The notion of astronomy as being a “GatewayScience” has been used to highlight how astron-omy can be used to re-invigorate the science class-room, pique the curiosity of the students and engagethem with science in general (NRC, 2001, 2011;Salimpour et al., 2018b). The richness and mysteryof topics in astronomy provides a springboard intovarious concepts in science from basic motion tooptics and beyond. Research has shown the positiveclassroom perceptions and knowledge changes thatresult from exposure to astronomy (Danaia et al.,2012, 2017), although, so far, there is some work todo to understand student attitude changes (Bartlettet al., 2018).

This paper provides an overview and resultsfrom an 11-week astronomy elective implementedin a Year 8 classroom at a non-governmental schoolin regional Victoria.

Robotic Telescopes in ScienceEducation

Over the past couple of decades, there has beena dramatic increase in Robotic and Remote tele-scopes, owing to the rapid progress and feasibilityof technology (Gomez and Fitzgerald, 2017). How-ever, despite this, the reviews by Salimpour et al.(2018a), show that within the school curricula, theuse of Robotic/Remote telescopes (RRTs) is notexplicit. The onus is on teachers to incorporatethis into their lessons, given that most curriculaafford the flexibility to incorporate lessons whichmake use of Robotic telescopes (RTs). However,as highlighted by (Cutts et al., 2018), the averagescience teacher lacks the knowledge required toguide students through such endeavours, and thatteacher training is vital to ensure the consistent andsuccessful implementation of RRT.

Studies have revealed that chasm of differencethat exists between school science and science in thereal world (Tytler, 2007). In the former, studentsfollow a set of instructions (recipe-based experi-ments) only to arrive at the “correct” answer. Theserecipe style modes of inquiry are potentially one rea-son why students are becoming disenchanted withschool science. There is a consensus among studiesthat authentic research in school science engagesstudents and can have a positive effect on their learn-ing (Chinn and Hmelo-Silver, 2002; Gould et al.,2006; McKinnon et al., 2002). Although, thereis a debate as to how “authentic research” can beimplemented in school science, the progress in tech-nology is making this endeavour a possibility. Thispossibility is seen clearly in RRTs, which providethe opportunity for students to conduct authenticresearch, by allowing them to collect and analysereal scientific data, from research grade telescopesacross the globe (Fitzgerald et al., 2012). Therebyremoving the challenges associated with visibilityand locations.

Although the use of RRTs in education is notnew, the goal is developing pedagogically effectivestrategies, that allow them to be used in scienceclassrooms by embedding authentic inquiry intothe lesson. Furthermore, to be truly embraced byteachers, the lessons and the use of RRT needs toaddress the content in the curriculum, within thelimited time constraints of the school.

Capturing the lightSince the first image of an astronomical object in1858 by William Underwood, taken of Comet Do-nati (North, 2008), we have seen a fantastic expan-sion to our view of the Universe. In the early days,astronomical photography was aimed at capturingscientific data, rather than creating a striking image.Albeit, the images created were striking given thatno one had ever seen these objects in this manner.The image of the Orion Nebula (M42) by AinsleeCommon Figure 1 (Osterman et al., 2007), earnedthe Royal Astronomical Society’s Gold Medal in1884 (RAS, 1996). This image set the stage in whatwas to become a new age in astronomical obser-


vations. Astronomical images of that era althoughblack & white, carried a curiosity piquing quality,and aesthetic. Perhaps because they were never seenbefore, or the forms, shapes and patterns carry withthem innate qualities that speak to our subconsciousaesthetic.

In the mid 20th century, the image of the An-dromeda galaxy (M31) by William C. Miller Figure2 demonstrated the potential of astronomical colourphotography (Miller, 1962). In the late 1970s, thework of David Malin at the Anglo-Australian Tele-scope, instigated the era of colour astrophotogra-phy both scientifically and aesthetically (Malin andMurdin, 1984; Malin et al., 1993). By combiningimages of astronomical objects taken on glass platessensitive to different wavelengths of light, Malinwas able to use dark room techniques to create strik-ing colour images, that told the story of the physicsat work. However, to the untrained eye, these im-ages were awe-inspiring works of art in their ownright.

The launch of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST)in 1990 and the images produced via its myriad ofinstruments over the decades, took colour imagingto an entirely new level. Bringing to the public, mes-merizing views of the Universe that their eyes couldnot see and their imagination could not synthesize.The colour images of David Malin and the HSTimage processing team revealed that the Universeis not a dark cold place, rather, it is permeated withrich, dynamic objects, exhibiting intricate formsand a symphony of colours hidden to our limitedeyes.

In the past couple of decades, the increasingaffordability of telescopes and imaging cameras hasbrought deep sky-imaging within the reach of am-ateurs, who create both aesthetically pleasing andscientifically rich images (RMG, 2017). These im-ages, although requiring hours of work, are basedon the same fundamental principles used by Ma-lin, and the HST. Therefore, they provide fertileground to expound the fundamental science theyencapsulate in the science classroom.

Science, Art, or both?One aspect of astronomical images that is shared byeveryone, is the beauty and mystery invoked whenlooking at these images. The beauty of an image isclosely linked to the notion of aesthetics; however,aesthetics is nontrivial, complex and multi-faceted,rooted in philosophy and culture, both subjectiveand objective (Wickman, 2006). Engaging in a de-bate about aesthetics is beyond the scope of thispaper, suffice to say that looking at images of galax-ies and nebula invokes an aesthetic experience bothvisually and psychologically. This experience isoften global, which is judged by the prevalence inmedia attention afforded to astrophotography com-petitions.

There is a growing movement in education re-search to find ways in using aesthetics to re-invigorateschool science in the 21st century (Lemke, 2001;Watts, 2001; Wickman, 2006). The idea of aesthet-ics in education while not novel (Dewey, 2005), hasyet to be effectively implemented in science edu-cation. This is perhaps owing to the stereotypicalbinary that is propagated about Art and Science,ergo, by extension aesthetics is seen as related toArt rather than Science. This distinction goes backto the late 18th century and Kant (1931), with hisproposition of Pure reason, Practical reason andAesthetics. However, at a fundamental level thereis no distinction (Root-Bernstein, 1989).

Over past few years, there has been a growingmovement towards the integration of Art in STEM,leading to STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineer-ing, Art, Mathematics) (Herro and Quigley, 2016;Kim and Bolger, 2017; Liao, 2016; Pomeroy, 2012;Zevin et al., 2015). The novelty of STEAM hasinstigated different reports (Kim and Park, 2012;Pomeroy, 2012; Zevin et al., 2015). Despite this,there are no empirically researched pedagogicalstrategies that demonstrate the effective integration(Herro and Quigley, 2016). It is worth mentioningthat the intergration of disciplines into currriculais not new. The notion of “integrated curriculum”,which is what the whole STEM, STEAM movementechoes goes back 1970s (Bernstein, 1975; Pring,1971).


Figure 1. Orion Nebula image taken Ainslee Common in 1883. Image credit: (Malin et al., 1993)


Figure 2. The first ever true color-corrected image of M31. Image credit: (Malin et al., 1993)


During the 1980s and 90s, the Freyberg Inte-grated Studies project aimed bringing innovation tocurriculum and pedagogy (McKinnon et al., 1991).This decade marked the start of thematic, integratedapproaches to curriculum, which saw a growinginterest in incorporating integrated units of work(Lipson et al., 1993). An example was the reportedin Australia with the 1996 review of the New SouthWales (NSW) Science Curriculum, wherein, pri-mary teachers wanted integrated units of work inscience (McKinnon 2017, personal communica-tion). The problems with curriculum integration hasbeen highlighted by (Mason, 1996), who highlightssome of the motivation behind the support for cur-riculum integration: Psychological/developmental,Sociocultural, Motivational and Pedagogical. Theproblems identified include: Trivialisation, Assess-ment, Skills, Teacher knowledge, and School struc-ture.

One could perhaps deduce that the notion ofSTEAM as implemented in the classroom, is to adegree governed by the “teacher’s style and episte-mologies”.

This elective draws on the notion of aestheticsas the foundation to teach fundamental concepts inastronomy. It builds on aesthetics not only in termsof visual beauty, but rather, aesthetics in terms ofexperiences (Wickman, 2006). Using aesthetics pro-vides an impetus to explore the science, by takingstudents on an experiential journey which they canrelate to, that of beauty, mystery and discovery.

Development of PreliminaryLearning Progression

Learning Progressions (LPs) have become prevalentin science education (Alonzo and Gotwals, 2012)and have gained popularity in astronomy educationresearch (AER) (Colantonio et al., 2018; Plummerand Maynard, 2014; Testa et al., 2015). Despitetheir potential for being valuable to science educa-tion, there are some cautions, such as the prematureimposition of constraints on instruction (Shavelsonand Kurpius, 2012), if LPs are under-researchedthey lead to reinforcing naive conceptions (Shavel-son and Kurpius, 2012), the need for professional

development for teachers (Shavelson and Kurpius,2012), LPs should be tested in a variety of class-rooms to determine that they are working as in-tended (Krajcik, 2012) and most importantly re-searchers must be critical of their work by avoid“force fitting data to the LPs (Krajcik, 2012). GoodLPs require extensive validation to ensure they areempirically valid (Plummer, 2012). Although thereare varied definitions of LPs, in general they pro-vide a roadmap for the gradual sophistication inknowledge and skills in learners as they move fromnaıve notions to expert notions in the learning pro-cess (Alonzo and Gotwals, 2012). Stages in LPsdo not necessarily follow the knowledge levels asexplicated by the discipline, given that the focusis on a developmental approach (Piaget and Cook,1952) and how students reason when presented withnew ideas (Alonzo and Gotwals, 2012).

The development of the LP for this elective wasbased on reviewing literature on AER, filtering outsome of the key concepts with which students havedifficulty, and determining how those concepts fitinto the Big Idea Goal (BIG), which is related toastronomical imaging. This allowed three overarch-ing themes to be synthesized:

1. Basics2. Objects in the Universe3. Image processing

Basics dealt with the theoretical minimum thatstudents would need, to be able to pick objectsbased on their location and time of year. It is aimedat understanding celestial motions from a geocentricreference frame, based on what they can observe.Objects in the Universe, was aimed at familiarizingstudents with the various types of objects in theUniverse, their characteristics, thereby allowing stu-dents to identify those objects. Image processing,was aimed at showing students the process of colourimage creation, familiarizing them at a conceptuallevel with the mathematical principles of image pro-cessing. In addition, this section included tutorialson using FITS Liberator and Adobe Photoshop.

The above framework was used to develop a pre-liminary hypothetical LP Table 1 as a potential roadmap into how students moved to higher levels of


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sophistication in terms of their content knowledgeand skills, in the context of the BIG. The LP usesthe content capital that students bring into the class-room as the basis for creating conceptual changethrough gradual levels of sophistication, wherebyeach level provides them with new sights to ques-tion their preconceived ideas.

Elective design andimplementation

The elective was designed using material from OurSolar Siblings (Fitzgerald et al., 2018) and modi-fied to work within the timeline and the abilitiesof the students. Students were in Year 8, at a non-governmental school in regional Victoria, Australia.The elective consisted of two 55 minute lessons perweek, extending over a single term of 11 weeks,although in reality accounting for all the classes,it was around 9 weeks. The class consisted of 12students (10 girls, 2 boys). Students arrived intothe class with exposure to popular media topics onastronomy and the usual curious questions aboutblack holes, aliens, the size of the Universe and thefate of the Universe.

A concept inventory – The Astronomy Knowl-edge Questionnaire (Lazendic-Galloway et al., 2017),coupled with in-class discussions, was used to asa formative assessment tool to determine the con-ceptual and content knowledge of students. Theresults revealed that the majority of students albeitfamiliar with some terminology in astronomy, hadvery limited knowledge on astronomical concepts,and held misconceptions, with regards to seasons,phases of the moon, motion of stars, and astronomi-cal images. Based on the results, the elective wasdesigned in such a way as to not only address someof those misconceptions, rather, augment the stu-dent’s knowledge in astronomy.

Students were provided with some introductionto astronomy via Socratic questioning (Elder andPaul, 1998). Where the task was to scaffold the stu-dents in exploring different concepts. This providedthe stage for an inquiry-based approach, by integrat-ing the student’s content capital into the discussionsand using that as a conduit to guide them to valid

scientific conceptions.The next step was to use a “Big Idea” concept to

set the stage for the remainder of the elective. Bigideas are defined as concepts/questions/statementswhich have far-reaching implications (NRC, 2007),and deep explanatory power (Smith et al., 2004).Selecting a “Big Idea” in astronomy can be chal-lenging (Plummer, 2012), and requires extensiveinvestigation. However, given the limited time, theapproach was to pick a topic to which the studentsalready had a vast amount of exposure and couldbe implemented via RTs in the classroom – astro-nomical imaging was the logical pathway. This stepallowed us to synthesize a Big Idea Goal (BIG), bytaking the traditional Big Idea notion and makingit into a practical outcome, that students aimed toachieve. For this elective the BIG was synthesizedas: “I want to create a “pretty” colour image of anastronomical object”. This led to the students toask:

• “What skills do I need to learn?”• “What theoretical knowledge do I need?• “What tools would I need?”• “What do I already know about astronomical

imaging?”• “What object do I choose?”• “How do I know what object to choose?”

Activities chosen from the Our Solar SiblingsProject 1 (Fitzgerald et al., 2015), were used to fa-cilitate the learning of theoretical concepts, whichincluded learning about the various objects in theUniverse and initial concepts about the Universe.Following some interactive lessons on Celestial Me-chanics using Stellarium, basic optics and familiar-izing students with the instruments they would beusing to capture their images, students were askedto pick five objects that they would like to image. AGoogleForm was created which facilitated studentselections, which were then queued via the LCOObservations portal.

While waiting for the images, students wereintroduced to the basics of imaging and image pro-cessing, starting with the Electromagnetic Spectrumand the physiology of the human eye. They were


then introduced to FITS Liberator and Adobe Pho-toshop. The use of FITS liberator, allowed for aconceptual explanation of the idea behind stretchingimages, and how this was achieved using mathemat-ical functions. A small activity was designed to getstudents practicing these skills by trying to createcolour images using images from the Hubble SpaceTelescope Legacy Archive.

ResultsThe students worked in pairs or individually, in to-tal 6 different objects were imaged, some studentspicked the same object; however, with different ex-posure times. The objects were: NGC5128 (Centau-rus A); NGC5139 (Omega Centauri); M17 (OmegaNebula); NGC 4567/NGC 4568 (Siamese Twins);M41; M51(Whirlpool galaxy). Two images werestandouts Figure 3 and Figure 4, especially becausethe students who processed them had no previousexposure to astronomical imaging and only limitedexposure to basic astronomy in primary school.

DiscussionAstronomy is a rich topic, which automatically in-stigates discussions about the mysterious and theawe-inspiring. Most students let their imaginationrun wild when asking questions, conjuring up sce-narios, which often can be answered using our cur-rent knowledge and drawing on the students’ pre-existing knowledge. A review of curricula fromaround the OECD, shows that middle school sci-ence curricula often include topics on light, colourand the basics of optics (Salimpour et al., 2018a),in prep. This elective allowed those concepts to betaught within the rich and practical landscape ofastronomical imaging. This is one example of usingastronomy as a “Gateway Science”.

Although in the Australian Middle School cur-riculum (Year 7-9), this elective does not explicitlyaddresses any of the curriculum statements, it doesprovide a context for teaching concepts of light, thenotions of matter, and working with real scientificdata. Looking at the Next Generation Science Stan-dards (NGSS, 2018)), this elective has the potential

of being used to introduce or extend the concept ofElectromagnetic Radiation PSB4.

One aim of this elective from an educational per-spective was to explore how to tap into the powerof RRTs in Middle School to teach various con-cepts in astronomy, by highlighting the underlyingphysics and mathematics in the context of astronom-ical imaging and image processing. Furthermore, itwas about showing the synergy that exists betweenScience and Art, and how this synergy can be practi-cally applied in the classroom. This can be achievedby unpacking the notion of aesthetics and aestheticexperiences (Wickman, 2006). Without creating abinary between Art and Science in the classroom.

The BIG gave students a tangible outcome, theywanted to create “pretty pictures”, which althoughrequires technical skills, also requires knowledgefrom various domains in Physics. Students had tolearn this knowledge at the theoretical and practi-cal minimum, which meant that they found a directapplication of this knowledge to the BIG. The BIGalso set the stage for a true integration of Art andScience, by drawing on the commonality that bothshare: observation, experimentation, deduction, in-ference, discovery and beauty both disciplinary andaesthetics.

In-class observations highlighted the excitementthat students experienced when they changed theblending mode of the layers in Photoshop, thus mix-ing the layers and revealing the colour image. Thiswas truly a surprise to them and in many ways adiscovery in the broadest sense of the word. Discus-sions with the students revealed that this surprisewas owing to the sense of not knowing what theirimages would look like, and the lack of confidencethey had in themselves. This raises a valuable in-sight.rue scientific discovery is not about knowingthe “correct” answer, rather it is about discoveringthat the knowledge and skills you have could beused to generate new knowledge. Although stu-dents had seen the images published on the internet,with a myriad of colour palettes, they did not antic-ipate that they had the acquired the knowledge tocreate the same image.

Although it is worth noting that when studentscompared their images with those on the internet,


Figure 3. Colour image of Omega Centauri (NGC5139). Notice how the processing has revealed thecolour of the stars in the cluster


Figure 4. Colour image of the Omega Nebula (M17).


some were discouraged as to why their images werenot the same as those. They questioned whethertheir images were poor, or the images on the inter-net were fake. This opened the discussion into thediscrepancy, which led to deeper discussions aboutcolour, filters, and telescopes.

Secondly, it highlights the power of ownership,although the students were excited when they usedarchived images in the practice run, knowing thatthis image was created by them, brought with itvastly different level of motivation. Research intothe concept of ownership, and how that affects stu-dent learning, has yet to be studied in detail.. How-ever, there is a professional general consensus thatit seems to s have an impact (Gould et al., 2006;McKinnon and Geissinger, 2002; McKinnon et al.,2002). Anecdotal evidence from this elective hintsat ownership having a positive impact on studentmotivation and learning. Although a deep empiricalstudy is required to explore these findings.

Looking at their images, the students, in addi-tion to using terminology innate to the Arts to de-scribe their images, now could explain the Physicsbehind what was occurring in the image. Theycould now articulate the “beauty of the science”in their images. One could argue that this is oneimplementation of STEAM in classroom, or morespecifically an integrated curriculum.

One interesting observation was the challengethat certain students had with being given the free-dom to make choices. Discussions with the studentsrevealed that this is potentially owing to the factthat most of school middle science is based aroundrecipe-based experiments. Whereby the studentsaim to get the “correct” answer by following the in-structions given by the teacher. They are also goodat searching the internet to do “research” when writ-ing an essay or report, however, they are hesitant toventure into the unknown, using only their currentknowledge as a guide. These students are not in thetop 10-20%, nor in the bottom 10-20%, they are themiddle band, which are often easily discouragedand include students with a variety of abilities andlevels.

Based on anecdotal observations, this is, inessence, attributed to self-efficacy. There has been

research in educational psychology with regards tothe effects of self-efficacy on teaching and learning(Bandura, 1982; Britner and Pajares, 2006; Greene,2017; Schoon and Boone, 1998; Settlage et al.,2009; Zimmerman, 2000) and also the effects ofemotions in science education (Bellocchi et al.,2017; Sinatra et al., 2014). One can also invokethe notion that aesthetic experiences can have wideranging impacts on how students learn (Wickman,2006). Although students may be excited by topicsin astronomy (e.g.: blackholes, exoplanets), andinspired by the images they see in the media, thisdoes not necessarily equate to higher levels of self-efficacy in all students when they are tasked with aninquiry-based learning task.Therefore, it is vital toembed activities that enhance student self-efficacy,before embarking on such open-ended inquiry tasks,especially when students have had little or no expo-sure. This will be the topic of a future paper whichis currently in preparation.

It must be emphasized that the BIG was to make“pretty” pictures, which carries with it a subjectiveaesthetic, yet a global aesthetic experience. Thislatter experience is at the heart of science. The aes-thetic experience of taking Black & White images,and creating a colour image, is a positive aestheticexperience. Unlike the positive aesthetic experi-ence, which must be learned through disciplinaryknowledge, e.g. the beauty in a mathematical equa-tion, the aesthetic experience afforded by a colourastronomical image is universal (Wickman, 2006)for those not visually impaired.

The LP utilised in this study is hypothetical andas such requires further refinement. This approachis in the process of being adapted into an empiri-cally validated LP, which provides teachers with aroadmap to one avenue of implementing RRTs in amiddle school science classroom. The LP will alsoprovide curriculum developers with a frameworkon connecting concepts across disciplines and em-bedding the practical applications of concepts intothe curriculum statements.


ConclusionThe beauty of the Universe can be appreciated byeveryone irrespective of their culture, religion orpolitical persuasion. An image of a galaxy, neb-ula, or even a nightscape showing the Milky Way,invokes experiences that go beyond the visual aes-thetics of the image, instigating a journey throughthe Universe and discussions of its mysteries. Stu-dent engagement in school science is ebbing, thishas instigated educators and policy makers to seekways in bringing about a change. Astronomy, withits richness of topics and awe-inspiring visuals issuited to instigate this change – a “Gateway Sci-ence”. With this in mind,a Year 8 elective was im-plemented that allowed the students to use RRTs tocapture images of astronomical objects they foundinteresting, and combine those images to create a“pretty” colour image. This elective is but one ex-ample of how astronomy can be used in teachingcore science concepts, using a single Big Idea Goal,which is tangible and familiar to students.

Some interesting insights gleaned from this studyrevealed:

• The challenge experienced by certain stu-dents in making choices, especially thosewho are accustomed to being given recipe-based experiments in school science

• The surprise and excitement experienced bystudents when they first glimpsed the colourimage they had created

• The discrepancy in quality between their ownimages and those published on the internetwas a source of despair

• The constant need for some students to betold whether their image was “good”

• The combined use of art and science terminol-ogy by the students to describe their image

We appreciate and emphasise that there is muchwork that needs to be done in developing this LP(Krajcik, 2012; Shavelson and Kurpius, 2012). There-fore, we present this LP as a starting point. The nextstage will be an empirical validation of the prelimi-nary LP developed and implemented in this elective,which will provide a roadmap for curriculum devel-opers and interested teachers in bringing engaging

science into the middle school science classroomusing RRTs. This brief case study highlights theenormous potential that astronomical imaging usingRRTs has on teaching in the classroom, and howthey can be easily connected to current curriculumtopics.

Furthermore, it demonstrates how Arts can beintegrated with Science, in a practical classroom set-ting, without jeopardizing either discipline, rather,drawing on the commonalities of each discipline.This synergy further supports the consensus thatastronomy can truly be considered a “Gateway Sci-ence”, maybe it is also a “Gateway to Learning”.

AcknowledgmentsI would like to thank the organizers of the RTSREConference for affording me the opportunity topresent this work. In addition, my thanks to Dr.Michael Fitzgerald and Prof. David McKinnon ofthe Edith Cowan Institute for Education Researchfor their support during the RTSRE Conferenceand their helpful comments in preparing this pa-per. I would also like to thank LCO for the timeon their telescopes. And finally a big thanks toour Hawai’ian hosts for making this conferenceextremely welcoming.

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Capturing the Cosmos: Teaching Astronomy (and more ... · The launch of the Hubble Space Telescope...

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