When Shawn Avery, a teacher from Dennett Elementary School in Plympton, Mass., saw a tweet from @SkypeClassroom asking if anyone would be interested in a Skype call with a noted astronomer, he jumped at the opportunity.
As he writes on Skype’s Social Good blog, the interaction between his students and Dr. Carol Christian of the Space Telescope Science Institute at Johns Hopkins University, helped achieve the goal of getting students excited about learning.
Avery, who is teaching a unit on space this year, spent some time with his students researching Dr. Christian and learning about her work on the Hubble Space Telescope. They found a TEDx talk she had done which led them on a journey through the universe “and all that Hubble has done to give us a better view of the vast expanse beyond our solar system.”
Read the rest of Avery’s post on Skype’s Social Good blog to get all the details of the call, which generated a lot of interest amongst his students. They asked plenty of questions, including “What is the most amazing thing you have seen through the Hubble Telescope?” and “Do you get nervous when you start something new and do you worry that it won’t turn out the way that you want?” Her answer: When things don’t turn out the way you thought it would, you may learn something unexpected.
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Athima Chansanchai
Microsoft News Center Staff
