Spider Star

The human colony on the planet Argo has long explored and exploited the technology left behind by an extinct alien race. But then an archaeology team accidentally activates a terrible weapon...
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Teaching Astronomy Using Fantasy Series

June 5th, 2008

I have my own approach to teaching science with science fiction (info on my college class is here). I’m very interested in other related efforts. At the AAS meeting this week, I attended a workshop run by Kristine Larsen and Marsha Bednarski of Central Connecticut State University titled: Muggles, Meteoritic Armor, and Menelmacar: Using Fantasy Series in Astronomy Education and Outreach. Here’s the abstract:

Due in part to recent (and ongoing) film adaptations, the fantasy series of C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia), J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter), Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials), and J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lord of the Rings) are being introduced to a new audience of young (and not so young) readers. Many astronomers and astronomy educators are unaware of the wide variety of astronomical references contained in each series. The first portion of this workshop will introduce participants to these references, and highlight activities which educators, planetariums, and science centers have already developed to utilize these works in their education and outreach programs. In the second segment of the workshop, participants will develop ideas for activities and materials relevant to their individual circumstances, including standards-based education materials (in concert with an on-hand specialist in curriculum development).

Kristine has a webpage list of online links to astronomy with connections to Tolkien, Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, and J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter books. My favorites include a parody of the discovery of a new element with variable mass that the one ring is made of, and another funny story about the productivity of astronomers plummeting with the release of the last Harry Potter book.

The idea of the workshop was to have different groups use different sets of quotes/stories from these series related to a particular astronomy topic as a launching point for an educational K-12 lesson on that topic. My group got Venus and we worked up something about the confusion about whether Venus is a planet (true) or a star (as it is often referred to by the public as the evening/morning star as well as by Tolkien and Lewis). “Twinkle twinkle little what?” was the great title by Andy Fraknoi who sat in the group. We developed several lessons. One involved its motion and how it was always close to the sun (using active participation by making kids act out the movements of the Sun, Venus, and Earth and comparing this to actual positions found using net-based software and/or actual observation). Another involved twinkling being a function of the atmosphere and the size of the object in the sky (apparently you can simulate twinkling in a class room with a hot plate and a light source). We had a few other ideas, too. The results of the entire workshop will be included in a publication later.

It opened up my perspective on some different ways to get the science across. I’ve been down on books like The Science of Harry Potter, as there isn’t much there in my opinion, but there’s an angle that can be exploited educationally. I’m particularly interested in developing some kind of workshop for Launch Pad that uses this kind of approach toward how to explain some particularly tough science concepts.

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