While astronomy textbooks are an excellent resource, they can quickly become out of date. However, keeping up with the latest astronomical research can be quite daunting. Below, you'll find a number of assignments that highlight Canadian contributions to the field, as well as links to Canadian Astronomy in the news.

Your feedback is more than welcome! Please email cascaed@astro.utoronto.ca with comments on these activities or ideas for others.

Canadian Astronomy in the News

Assignment: Students are responsible for each locating a recent article featuring Canadian astronomy, and presenting their article to the class. The presentation may include any of the following (depending on the grade level): a summary of the article; images; a mini-biography of any scientists mentioned; a mini-report on the facilities mentioned; their opinion on why the event is news-worthy; their opinion of the impact on society.

Timeline: One or two presentations can be done at the beginning of each science period, or only on certain days of the week. While all presentations could be done on the same day, one or two a day keeps the students interested and reduces the possibility of repeated articles.

Tips: Keep the presentation short (~5 minutes), and select the order of the students at the beginning of the unit/term so that they know the order, and can plan ahead.

Combining Canadian Astronomy and Literacy

Assignment: Give each student (or pair of students) a copy of a recent news article featuring Canadian astronomy. Instruct them to read the article and highlight any words they do not understand. When they are finished, they must then look up the words they highlighted, either online through a dictionary site or using a class set of dictionaries. After a set amount of time, the teacher then orally assesses members of the class on certain words, and checks for comprehension. Finally, give the students a few minutes to write a brief summary, in their own words, of the article and its importance.

Timeline: Part of one class, depending on the length/difficulty of the article. Can be repeated throughout the unit with new articles at the teacher's discretion.

Tips: The teacher may decide to read the article aloud initially, or have members of the class read aloud. With so many resources available online, teachers may remove some of the text from articles in order to offer shorter articles while maintaining important details.

Canadian Astronomy Scrapbook

Assignment: Students collect and summarize articles highlighting Canadian Astronomy. The scrapbook may include images, mini-biographies of Canadian astronomers mentioned in the articles and/or mini-reports on Canadian facilities mentioned in the articles.

Alternate assignment: Students can keep a scrapbook of art or poetry based on articles highlighting Canadian Astronomy that are read to them. For each new article, include the title of the article, a copy of the article itself and a drawing or poem based on what they understand of the article being read.

Timeline: This project can span anywhere from one week to the length of the entire unit.

Tips: Have an exemplar to show students what is expected of them. Provide students with one or two articles to get them started. Be sure to specify how many articles should be in the scrapbook for full marks.

Canadian Astronomy Response Journal

Assignment: Students read an article on Canadian Astronomy (or have an article read to them), and then answer reflective questions on the article in a journal. Questions to be answered can include: This is news-worthy because...; This is exciting (or not exciting) because...; This makes me think about ...; One question I have about this article is...; This is important because...; I wonder about...; as well as many others.

Timeline: Throughout the unit, taking a few minutes of each class that an article is read, or a larger amount of time for a couple articles at once.

Tips: Provide the students with a list of the reflective questions to be answered each time so that they can keep track of what they're doing. Students can also add art or poetry to their journal along with the questions.

Ideas for other summative astronomy assignments
Recent news articles
More news and press releases
General news and events across Canada
Astronomy newsletters
Return to Astronomy in Canada main page

created by the CASCA education Webteam, (2008)