Digital Universe Reimagined
In normal times , the Digital Universe Flight School unit partners Saint David ’ s sixth graders with astrophysicists and educators from the American Museum of Natural History for an interdisciplinary unit of study that takes place in sessions both at the museum and back in the classroom . This year , the pandemic prohibited the museum from hosting the unit , but this didn ’ t prevent Saint David ’ s teachers from figuring out a way to provide this signature experience . Enter : The Digital Universe Reimagined ! This winter , the Sixth Grade ’ s astronomy study used tools funded by NASA and developed by experts at the American Museum of Natural History to explore the digital universe . Visiting astronomy experts worked in conjunction with the boys ’ science teachers as the Digital Universe study transported the boys to an in-depth interdisciplinary exploration of the cosmos in a unit blending astronomy , language arts , public speaking , and technology .
Topics of exploration included scale of the universe , atmospheric effects , rocks and tectonics , the Lunar and Marian surfaces , search for life , and meteorites and impact craters . Boys participated in field trips to Central Park where they used telescopes to observe the dynamics of the sun . As a culminating activity , the boys , working in pairs , researched an astronomy topic of their choice ( What is the life of a star ? How can we find life on other planets ? Was Mars always a frozen desert wasteland ?). They worked as film directors choosing and sequencing NASA video clips and animations and charting flight paths using Open Space astro-visualization software . Research findings were storyboarded and turned into gripping multimedia narratives with arresting visuals using Open Space .
Astronomy experts / museum educators Evan Rothstein and Jonathan Ullman met with the boys in Central Park for socially-distanced field trips . They also regularly visited boys ’ classes remotely to demonstrate how to employ Open Space software to fly through the digital universe atlas , a 3D model of real astronomical data collected by research institutions all over the world .
On two evenings in April the sixth graders , their families , and Saint David ’ s faculty and staff experienced the grand finale : the boys ’ original space shows live streamed for all to enjoy , goody bags included ! All agreed : This unit may have been reimagined , but the shows , narrated by each boy , demonstrated a deep level of learning , and retained the integrity of program and excitement quotient of the pre-pandemic experience . Reflections from our Science and English teachers follow :
Bradford Hardie and Sam Woolford ( Science ): “ We found a way to persevere . The boys posed research questions , were guided by their teachers and sought answers using a wide variety of multimedia resources . They explored light and learned how astronomy tools collected the data that inform everything we know about the existing matter and space in the universe … Students were amazed to see the enormous clusters of galaxies in the universe . We ’ re so proud of these boys .”
Karen Davis and Jamie MacNeille ( English ): “ The boys shaped their research into narratives , aimed to tell stories full of emotion that would ignite your imagination on this journey across the universe . They incorporated a classic rhetorical strategy using ethos to establish their scientific personas , pathos to appeal to emotions , and logos to provide incredible information they uncovered about the universe .” M
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