The Search for Life in the Universe Online: A Distance Learning Course on Astrobiology for Teachers

Effective inquiry-based instruction requires that teachers possess a detailed understanding of the target concepts to be taught. Because astrobiology, the search for the origins and evolution of life in the universe, is a new field of science bringing together many fields of study, it presents a formidable challenge for most K-12 science teachers. The NASA-funded Center for Educational Resources (CERES) Project (URL: http://btc.montana.edu/ceres/) at Montana State University has designed a set of classroom activities and an accompanying Internet course for teaching astrobiology. These activities have been designed to combine on-line data resources from NASA with the student-centered inquiry instructional strategy emphasized in the National Science Education Standards. The activities have been developed and field-tested by pre-college science teachers and university faculty. The accompanying asynchronous Internet course is a 15-week, graduate-level course in astrobiology for teachers. The course integrates the NASA Astrobiology Roadmap, the NRC National Science Education Standards, and the astrobiology curriculum supplements available online at URL: http://btc.montana.edu/ceres/astrobiology/LabActivities/. The two main goals of this course are: (1) To provide information on the central concepts related to the field of Astrobiology, and (2) To provide experiences with using and creating student-centered and inquiry-based curriculum materials for teaching astrobiology. Specifically, each of the teacher-participants, who are in-service teachers: identify NASA’s science goals for the study of Astrobiology; complete lab activities designed to develop knowledge and skills in Astrobiology; create an original reading activity that synthesizes Astrobiology information; develop inquiry-based curriculum in Astrobiology education that are aligned with the National Science Education Standards; field-test an Astrobiology lab activity with middle or high school students; and write an implementation plan for teaching an existing lab activity with students. Course evaluations, conducted externally by Horizon Research in North Carolina, overwhelmingly suggest that the course meets its goals of improving teachers’ astrobiology content knowledge and skills at implementing these topics in their classrooms. In total, 18 credit-hours are now available in a series of ‘astronomy for teachers courses’ which, when combined with 14 graduate credit-hours in curriculum and instruction, can constitute a foundation for a new astronomy education option in the Montana State University Master of Science – Science Education (MSSE) online degree program.