International Year of Astronomy

The world will celebrate the International Year of Astronomy this year. This celebration of the importance of the science of astronomy coincides with the 400th anniversary of Galileo's use of a telescope to study the skies and Johaness Kepler's publication of Astronomia Nova (validating the work of Copernicus that the Earth and other planets orbit the sun). 2009 is also the anniversary of many other historic events in science, including Christiaan Huygen's 1659 publication of Systema Saturnium (his study of the rings of the planet Saturn).

Everyone should realize the impact of astronomy and other fundamental sciences on our daily lives, and understand how scientific knowledge can contribute to a more equitable and peaceful society. IYA2009 activities are taking place locally, nationally, regionally, and internationally.

National Nodes in each country are running activities throughout 2009 which will establish collaborations between professional and amateur astronomers, science centers, and science educators. More than 130 countries are already involved and over 140 are expected to eventually participate.

ProQuest has created a BookCart learning activity to help your students learn more about astronomy and telescopes for exploring the universe: "Astronomy—Telescopes, and Life on Other Planets."

This and all ProQuest model BookCarts are complete one-stop learning activities for your students. This saves time for more teaching and learning that too often is consumed in non-productive searching and evaluating relevancy. Each Cart provides (a) examples of essential questions that help students develop 21st-century critical thinking skills; (b) student directions that guide the research process; (c) call numbers to related print resources; (d) an optional quiz; (e) an information literacy standard; and (f) ProQuest models for written reports and presentations.

You won't find this combination of inquiry-based learning activity support in ONE PLACE in any other K-12 resource.

You can copy, edit, and adapt these models to differentiate instruction for your students. (Learn how.)

• Open eLibrary Science Teacher Edition
• Click BookCart Admin link below the Search box
• Click the ProQuest Carts tab (more than 100 eLibrary Science ProQuest models)
• Type "Astronomy—Telescopes, and Life on Other Planets" in the Search box
• Click the Copy icon in the Actions column to the right of this Cart
• Click Return to My Local Carts tab to end the copying process

This Cart should be edited in My Local Carts to adapt it for your students:

• Click the BookCart Title that has "Copy of" as its prefix
• Delete "Copy of" in the Title
• Type your name in the Author boxes, and your email in the email box
• Optional: Edit the essential questions and any other text in the Directions box
• Scroll down and click Save button at bottom
• Return to My Local Carts.

Assign students to write a report of at least 150 words (or a PowerPoint of at least seven slides) that cites at least three resources and addresses the following essential questions for critical thinking (you can add or substitute others):

• What new telescope technologies have been developed to explore the Universe?
• Why is it important to continue space exploration?
• What obstacles are there to continued space exploration?
• What discoveries create the possibility of finding life on other planets?
• How does space exploration technology benefit Americans directly?

Type "Astronomy and telescopes" in the Search box > type "Astronomy or telescopes in the Document Title box > click Sort by Date box

Type "Life on other planets" > type "Life or planets" in the Document Title box

Use our custom ProQuest models for written and PowerPoint-style reports.