This award supports the biennial teacher workshop, a critical component of LEAP (Lowell Educational Astronomy Program), which is a science enrichment and outreach program for 5th-8th grade Navajo and Hopi children and their teachers. This workshop will be held October 15-16, 2010.
The LEAP program pairs astronomers with teachers for one year. The astronomer visits the classroom throughout the year, leading astronomy discussions and hands-on activities in collaboration with the teacher. The astronomer also holds star parties at the school and involves tribal educators in presenting traditional astronomical knowledge. The year-long partnership culminates in a field trip to Lowell Observatory in which the students visit the Observatory's Steele Visitor Center during the day and observe on two research telescopes at night. LEAP is primarily concerned with teacher training so that the efforts of the program have an impact far beyond the students worked with directly each year. The teacher workshop is a major part of that training, and each teacher brings a colleague from their school. The workshop thus reaches more teachers than participate directly.
Two unique components of LEAP are: 1) the astronomers take the time to drive long distances to get to remote schools, not just once, but in a sustained effort throughout the school year; 2) the program provides all of the materials for classroom activities, allowing some classes the opportunity for hands-on activities that they could not otherwise afford. Over the past 14 years, LEAP has impacted more than 1700 Native American students and 50 5th-8th grade teachers at Navajo and Hopi Nation schools. The teacher workshop this year will enhance the understanding of science for 18 teachers at 9 Navajo and Hopi Nation schools, and will benefit their students for years to come.
Grant AST-1048362 funded most of the LEAP bi-annual teacher workshop. LEAP ---"Lowell Educational Astronomy Program'' --- is a science enrichment and outreach program for 5th--8th grade Navajo and Hopi students and their teachers. The high school graduation rate of students in the Navajo and Hopi Nations is well below both state and national averages, and they are nearly absent at higher levels of graduate education. The goals of LEAP are: 1) To use the science of astronomy as a vehicle to stimulate interest in science on the part of Navajo and Hopi children 2) To help teachers of Native American students learn about astronomy and astronomy-centered activities so that they will acquire the potential to incorporate astronomy into their classroom curriculum 3) To dismiss myths about scientists and encourage Native children to consider careers in the sciences 4) To train new generations of Native children to become intelligent and informed consumers of science information Over the past 14 years, LEAP has impacted more than 1700 Native American students and 50 5th-8th grade teachers at Navajo and Hopi Nation schools. Although we also work with the students, we are primarily working with the teachers, and our efforts are aimed at teacher training. In that way our program has an impact far beyond the students we work with each year. The workshop is a crucial part of teacher training, and we held our 1.5-day bi-annual workshop 5-6 November 2010. The teachers learned about activities that they can do in their classrooms and enhanced their understanding of astronomy. Our teachers were very thirsty to learn more about astronomy and loved to ask questions. They left the workshop energized and enthusiastic about including astronomy in their classrooms. We had 17 teachers attend from 11 schools, three from Hopi Nation schools and the rest from Navajo schools. The location of the schools ranged from Window Rock, the seat of the Navajo government and close to the relatively large town of Gallop, to remote Navajo Mountain on the northern edge of Arizona. One teacher was Anglo, one Filipino, two Hopi, and the rest were Navajo. We provided each teacher with all of the materials for all of the activities that we presented so that they could go home, walk into their classroom, and do any of the activities from the workshop. The materials were a major part of the budget of the workshop and assembling them was an enormous effort. However, this was essential to maximizing the ability of the teachers to carry out these activities in their classrooms. The teachers simply do not have the finances, access to stores, or time to put the activities together otherwise.
