Patricia Skelton
Deputy Head of Astronomy Engagement at the Royal Observatory Greenwich
Activity
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Hello everyone and welcome to `Our Solar System and Beyond: Teaching Primary Science'! We were actively facilitating this course from 13 February - 5 March.
The next facilitated period will begin on 22 May 2023, however we're confident that you'll find support in the comments from other participants taking the course, so you can get started whenever you...
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Hello everyone and welcome to `Physics, Astronomy, and Space: Teaching Secondary Science'! We were actively facilitating this course from 13 February - 5 March.
The next facilitated period will begin on 22 May 2023, however we're confident that you'll find support in the comments from other participants taking the course, so you can get started whenever you...
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Hello everyone and welcome to `Physics, Astronomy, and Space: Teaching Secondary Science'! We will be actively facilitating this course from 13 February - 5 March 2023.
We hope that you enjoy all the great topics covered in this course and that you will find it rewarding - there's loads to cover, so let's jump in to Week 1!
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Hello everyone and welcome to `Physics, Astronomy, and Space: Teaching Secondary Science'! We were actively facilitating this course from 17 October - 6 November.
The next facilitated period will begin on 13 February 2023, however we're confident that you'll find support in the comments from other participants taking the course, so you can get started...
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Great question - all of our animated videos are free for teachers to use in the classroom and can be viewed either on our Vimeo channel (www.vimeo.com/royalobservatory) or on our museum website (https://www.rmg.co.uk/schools-communities/all-astronomy-science-resources).
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This is a great approach to use. Sometimes teachers feel pressured to know the answer to everything, but the reality is that we can't. Showing students that it is fine to not know the answer to a question and then working with them to find the answer together is a powerful teaching tool.
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@AbdulrahmanAlhamad It's fantastic that you have included the fact that stars contain mostly hydrogen and helium - this is a quick and easy thing for students to remember about stars.
Something we have found that always makes students go "Wow!" is to show them just how big stars can get. We often start off by showing the size of the Earth compared to the...
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Patricia Skelton replied to Cormac Jaffari
@petraReichel When viewed from the Southern Hemisphere, the Moon does appear upside down compared to how it looks in the Northern Hemisphere. I grew up in the Southern Hemisphere and when I moved to the UK, it was something I had to get used to seeing :-)
Another thing to note is that in the Northern Hemisphere, as we move from new moon to full moon, the...
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Patricia Skelton replied to Cormac Jaffari
@petraReichel Here is a short video that explains the difference between sidereal and synodic months; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IAocHt3xro0
The lunar phase seen by people around the Earth will be the same. So, for example, if the Moon is in its first quarter phase, as the Earth spins around, every person will be able to see the Moon in its first...
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Hello everyone and welcome to `Physics, Astronomy, and Space: Teaching Secondary Science'! We will be actively facilitating this course from 17 October - 6 November and look forward to sharing our experiences with you, and responding to your posts.
We hope that you enjoy all the great topics covered in this course and that you will find it rewarding -...
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Hello everyone and welcome to `Our Solar System and Beyond: Teaching Primary Science'!
We will be actively facilitating this course from 13 February - 5 March 2023. We hope that you enjoy all the great topics covered in this course and that you will find it rewarding - there's loads to cover, so let's jump in to Week 1!
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Hello everyone and welcome to `Physics, Astronomy, and Space: Teaching Secondary Science'! We were actively facilitating this course from 8 - 28 August and enjoyed reading and responding to your posts.
The next facilitated period will begin on 17 October 2022, however we're confident that you'll find support in the comments from other participants taking...
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Hello everyone and welcome to `Our Solar System and Beyond: Teaching Primary Science'! We were actively facilitating this course from 8 - 28 August and enjoyed reading and responding to your posts.
The next facilitated period will begin on 17 October 2022, however we're confident that you'll find support in the comments from other participants taking the...
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When looking at images of the Sun, it is certainly true that it looks like a giant ball of fire in the sky. In fact, before scientists figured out what stars like our Sun were made of and what powers them, many people thought that the Sun was made of fire.
The Sun is a giant ball of very hot gases (in case anyone is curious - the temperature at the centre...
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Thank you for bringing that to our attention - it looks like the link was broken! We have updated the link in the text so you should now be able to view the results of the survey.
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Patricia Skelton replied to Emma Dawes
Welcome to the course! :-)
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Welcome to the course! :-)
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@JuliannaSilvester There is a series called "5 levels" and they have a number of videos on a range of topics - you can view the playlist here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLibNZv5Zd0dyCoQ6f4pdXUFnpAIlKgm3N
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
You'll find out more about your course educators in the next step, and we would love to learn more about our students :-)
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Hello everyone and welcome to `Physics, Astronomy, and Space: Teaching Secondary Science'! We will be actively facilitating this course from 8 - 27 August and look forward to sharing our experiences with you, and responding to your posts.
We hope that you enjoy all the great topics covered in this course and that you will find it rewarding - there's loads...
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You're absolutely correct in saying that it's okay not to understand everything and I think this is something that students (and teachers) should be told more often. When a topic pops up that you don't understand, this opens up fantastic a learning opportunity for everyone - learning is a lifelong process and we should never stop asking questions.
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Welcome to Week 3 everyone :-)
We've got quite a bit to cover, so let's get going!
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Welcome to Week 3 everyone :-)
We've got quite a bit to cover, so let's get going!
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Welcome to the course! We're happy to answer any astronomy questions you may have :-)
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I agree with you - it's so disheartening when you hear those words! When people are curious about a topic, or want to know how something works, even the most complicated thing can be broken down into chunks that are easy to understand.
Here's one great example of how a complex topic like black holes can be explained in 5 levels of difficulty:...
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Patricia Skelton replied to Suzanne Kaldenbach
A black hole's gravitational pull is so strong that not even light can escape from it. This means that if a spacecraft, or a drone, could survive entering a black hole, we would never be able to get any information back from that spacecraft/drone - black holes are certainly some of the strangest objects in the Universe!
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Welcome to week 2 everyone!
Looking forward to working with all of you this week and diving into some interesting topics :-)
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Welcome to week 2 everyone!
Looking forward to working with all of you this week and diving into some interesting topics :-)
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Hello everyone and welcome to `Physics, Astronomy, and Space: Teaching Secondary Science'! We were actively facilitating this course from 14 - 6 March 2022 and enjoyed sharing our experiences with you, and responding to your posts.
The next facilitated period will begin on 23 May 2022, however we're confident that you'll find support in the comments from...
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Welcome everyone! It's always great to meet our course participants and learn a bit more about them :-) I'll kick things off - I love astronomy and space exploration (Mars is my favourite planet!), my love of Star Trek is what got me interested in astronomy, and I'm a huge LEGO fan.
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Hello everyone and welcome to `Our Solar System and Beyond: Teaching Primary Science'! We will be actively facilitating this course from 23 May - 12 June 2022 and look forward to sharing our experiences with you, and responding to your posts.
We hope that you enjoy all the great topics covered in this course and that you will find it rewarding - there's...
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Patricia Skelton replied to Edmund McKennall
Really good points - spacecraft sent to explore other worlds are sterilised before leaving the Earth to ensure they are biologically clean and contaminant free.
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Brilliant! The reasons you've outlined above are precisely why students should meet scientists :-)
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Patricia Skelton replied to Cormac Jaffari
The difference in lengths between the lunar phase cycle (29.5 days) and the lunar orbit (27.3 days) has to do with the fact that while the Moon is orbiting around the Earth, the Earth is also moving (it is orbiting the Sun).
This means that when the Moon has completed one orbit of the Earth, the Moon has to then move a little bit further in its path to...
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This is a misconception that I have come across too. Out of interest, and if you would be happy to share it, what made you change your mind about this particular misconception?
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The second point you raised is a valid point and one that has been the focus of a fair number of conversations that I have had with members of the public and students. We're often asked why so much money is spent on sending astronauts to space because people living on the ground don't benefit from it. And it is a difficult point to talk about, but the truth...
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Asteroids are something astronomers do keep an eye on because they can pose a threat to us here on the Earth (but it does depend on the orbit of the asteroid/s).
A solar storm is dangerous and life threatening, but it is not due to asteroids. A solar storm relates to solar activity, or activity on the Sun. We might think that our Sun is a quiet star,...
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Each planet of our solar system does orbit around the Sun, with each planet taking a different amount of time to do so. The Earth takes 365.25 days to complete one orbit of the Sun, Mercury only takes 88 days to complete one orbit of the Sun while Neptune takes an incredible 165 years to complete an orbit!
The Sun provides us with heat and light which is...
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Patricia Skelton replied to Katarzyna Krawczak
Thank you for the wonderful feedback - we're delighted that you enjoyed the course :-)
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
We hope that you have enjoyed this course and that your confidence in teaching primary science has increased. If you would like more information about our schools programme, head to our website:
https://www.rmg.co.uk/schools-communities/rog-schools
You can also follow us on Twitter: @ROGAstronomers
Happy stargazing! :-)
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Hello everyone and welcome to `Our Solar System and Beyond: Teaching Primary Science'! We were actively facilitating this course from 9 - 29 August and enjoyed sharing our experiences in teaching astronomy and space science with you, and responding to your posts.
The next facilitated period will begin on Monday 18 October, but until then, we encourage all...
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Welcome to the course :-)
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Great answers :-) As you say, it's very difficult to explain what the Universe is in just two sentences!
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Patricia Skelton replied to Carolina Guerra
Welcome to the course! :-)
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I always throw in something about the moon not being made out of cheese when talking to younger students - it always gets a laugh :-)
When talking to students about the Moon and when they can see it, they're often surprised to hear that you can see the Moon during the day depending on its phase, although it is a bit trickier to spot it against the bright...
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Great answer! We can't observe the nuclear reactions taking place at the centre of the Sun, but we can observe and feel some of the products of those reactions - heat and light
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Welcome to Week 3 everyone :-)
We've got quite a bit to cover, so let's get going!
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
We've reached the end of Week 2! It's been fantastic working with all of you :-)
Do you have any questions about anything that's been covered so far? If so, post them in the comments below and I will be happy to answer them.
See you all in Week 3 :-)
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These are tricky topics for students and they often confuse the spin of a planet with its orbit which then leads to misconceptions. A common misconception I have encountered from students who confuse the concepts of spin and orbit, is that the reason we have night and day is because the Earth orbits the Sun.
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I fully agree that the disconnect with what's taught in the classroom and the real world is a big problem. I remember talking to a group of students and asking them if they thought the mathematics and science they were learning at their level had any relevance in everyday life. They all said that it didn't, and were quite surprised when I gave them examples...
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Patricia Skelton replied to Emily Winter
We're happy to hear that you found the misconceptions about the seasons useful :-)
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Time flies when you're having fun! Thanks for taking part in week 1 and we hope that you're enjoying the course so far.
Week 2 is going to cover a number of interesting topics - see you there!
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There are many wonderful resources out there that you would be able to use and I'm sure your students will enjoy going exploring topics that might not necessarily be part of the curriculum. Some topics might even spark questions that you can then tie back in to the curriculum.
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Patricia Skelton replied to Justin Baker
Thanks for the great feedback :-)
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We're delighted that you enjoyed watching this video :-) If you would like to show it to your students, you can find this video along with our other educational animated videos, on our Vimeo channel: https://vimeo.com/royalobservatory
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I can relate to point 4 - there are so many schools that don't have fully equipped laboratories which means that their students never have the opportunity to do experiments.
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@AveMarieRecluta Students sometimes get confused with the two movements that the planets make, so a great way to avoid this confusion is to say that planets revolve (or go around the Sun). While the planets go around the Sun, they also rotate (or spin) and this spinning motion produces day and night.
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This is a great answer :-) Including that the Sun emits light and heat is a nice way of getting students to then think about how the Sun emits heat and light.
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Welcome to week 2 everyone!
Looking forward to working with all of you this week and diving into some interesting topics :-)
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Welcome to week 2 everyone!
Looking forward to working with all of you this week and diving into some interesting topics :-)
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Time flies when you're having fun!. Thanks for taking part in week 1 and we hope that you're enjoying the course so far. Week 2 is going to cover a number of interesting topics - see you there!
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Patricia Skelton replied to Lynn D
We're delighted to hear you're enjoying the course :-)
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When I was a secondary school student, I used to get so frustrated when students were actively discouraged from doing science (by friends, family and sometimes teachers too). Science is an amazing subject that can open so many wonderful career paths and students should be encouraged to study science. Having engaging classes at school, a point that you've...
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This is a great variety of techniques and activities :-)
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Great answer! By mass, the Sun is about 70.6% hydrogen and 27.4% helium.
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Hello everyone and welcome to this run of `Our Solar System and Beyond: Teaching Primary Science'. I will be facilitating this course from 31 May - 20 June and look forward to meeting and interacting with all of you :-)
Well be covering some great topics during this course and I hope that you will enjoy it and find it rewarding. Let's jump straight in to...
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Patricia Skelton replied to Suzanne D
We're delighted to hear that you enjoyed the course :-) Wishing you clear skies and many happy nights of observing when you test out your telescope (if you'd like any advice on what type of telescope to consider purchasing, let me know).
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Patricia Skelton replied to Ashby McGowan
We're delighted to hear that you enjoyed the videos and that you've shared our Seasons video :-)
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Great idea! This would combine many different areas of science :-)
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Students often don't realise that science is happening all around them and I think that if we can make students recognise that and encourage them to observe the world around them, it will spark their curiosity and they will want to learn more.
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A great example to use when talking to students about red stars being cooler in temperature compared to blue stars (which is counterintuitive), is to talk about a piece of metal being heated in a fire. As the metal begins to heat up, it starts to glow with a red colour and as the temperature continues to increase, the colour will change from red to...
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Patricia Skelton replied to Piyal Sana
Thanks for the great feedback :-)
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Patricia Skelton replied to Elsa de Cea
We're delighted to hear that you enjoyed the video :-)
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This is a great point and one I'm sure many people can relate to (as has already been done below). In my final year of secondary school, we had to do a number of review sessions of the previous year's science lessons due to concerns that we were not fully prepared for our final year. Those review sessions were beneficial and allowed me to identify weak points...
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Patricia Skelton replied to John Sloman
I can relate to this. When I was teaching undergraduate astronomy, I often found that when students were struggling with certain concepts, it was because they were struggling with the mathematics of those concepts. Something I found that worked well for me was to create a short "Crash course in Mathematics" document to help students and to supplement that...
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There are so many unanswered questions about the Universe, and the objects we find in it - I use this to encourage students to never stop asking questions and to always be curious.
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Welcome to the course! We'll be covering a range of different topics in astronomy, so I'm sure you'll find something fascinating to share with your family and friends :-)
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Patricia Skelton replied to Alan Williams
Manmade space junk is a huge problem - if you're interested in seeing how much space junk there is in orbit around the Earth, do a quick search for "Stuff in space" in your favourite web browser and then head to the Stuffinspace website.
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Great start :-) The Sun is one of the hundreds of billions of stars that are part of our galaxy (the Milky Way). There are stars in our galaxy that are much bigger than the Sun, one example is the red supergiant star Betelgeuse in the constellation of Orion.
If we look at our solar system, the Sun is the only star in it and it is very important - as you...
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Patricia Skelton replied to Andrew McEwen
Hi Andrew. You are absolutely correct - midday does start at 12:00pm and not at 12:00am. Thank you for pointing this out; I will make a note about it and see if we can have the video edited to correct the error. (During the production process for a video, it always surprises me how easy it is to miss things especially when you're focussing on ensuring the...
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
The Royal Observatory Greenwich has created a 'Learning at Home' hub where you can find all of our learning resources. You can access our hub here:
https://www.rmg.co.uk/schools-communities/learning-resources/learning-from-homeFor more information about our schools programme, including our new facilitated digital sessions, head to our...
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Patricia Skelton replied to Alan Williams
Great question! By using special spacecraft that have allowed scientists to map the Moon's gravitational field, they've been able to determine that there is no mass difference between the near side and the far side of the Moon. The side of the Moon that is facing the Earth will "feel" a slightly stronger gravitational attraction because it is closer to the...
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Patricia Skelton replied to Alan Williams
Great question! The reason why the Moon spins on its axis at the exact same rate that it orbits the Earth is due to something called tidal locking and happens because of the gravitational interaction between the Earth and the Moon.
The Moon pulls on the Earth and this is why we have tides, but the Earth also pulls on the Moon and because its pull is much...
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Patricia Skelton replied to Alan Williams
When astronomers say that an object must clear its orbit, what they mean is that the object must be the dominant gravitational body so that as the object orbits the Sun, it clears smaller objects out the way (through collision, capture or nudging it out the way).
This is the reason why Pluto was reclassified as a dwarf planet. Pluto's largest moon Charon...
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Patricia Skelton replied to Zeinab El Taher
That's correct :-)
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Thanks for notifying me about that - I'll make sure to check through the transcript :-)
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A transcript of the conversation is provided under "Downloads" (A researcher's perspective.pdf). I'll make a note that we should add a comment near the top of the page that the transcript is available :-)
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Patricia Skelton replied to julia b
One of the websites I visit frequently is NASA's Solar System website (https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/) which covers everything about our Solar System. It is a great resource and is always updated with the latest results from the exploration of our Solar System.
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Patricia Skelton replied to Zeinab El Taher
Great question! The reason why we experience seasons is because the Earth is tilted by an angle of 23.4 degrees. In June, if we looked at the Earth from space, we would see that the Northern Hemisphere points towards the Sun. This is why the Northern Hemisphere experiences summer in June - it receives lots of direct sunlight compared to the Southern...
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
This exercise is a great way to help you to prepare for questions your students might ask. I'll start things off by providing a description for 'Exoplanet'.
An exoplanet is a planet that is orbiting, or going around, another star. Astronomers have found over 4,000 exoplanets and we now think there could be hundreds of billions of exoplanets in our Milky Way...
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Welcome to Week 3 everyone :-)
We've got quite a bit to cover, so let's get going! -
Patricia Skelton replied to Kwinten F
I have had a similar experience to you, so you are not alone. One example of this was when I was asked this question "What are sunspots?". I started off with saying that they are areas on the Sun where the magnetic field is really strong and they appear dark because they are cooler than the surrounding material. Instead of leaving it at that, I then started...
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Patricia Skelton replied to Heloise Francis
That is a great idea! Encouraging students to observe the world around them is a brilliant way of getting them curious about how things work :-)
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Great start! Our Sun is the centre of our Solar System and it is enormous - it makes up 99.8% of the mass of the entire Solar System! Although the Sun might look like it's made of fire or lava, it is powered by nuclear fusion reactions that convert Hydrogen into Helium, releasing enormous amounts of energy in the process.
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
We've reached the end of Week 2! It's been fantastic working with all of you :-)
Do you have any questions about anything that's been covered so far? If so, post them in the comments below and I will be happy to answer them.
See you all in Week 3 :-)
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Patricia Skelton replied to Kwinten F
These are really great questions that you've raised. Have any other educators ever been asked questions similar to these? If so, let us know in the comments.
With regards to why the Earth spins and how it started spinning, you could talk about the formation of our Solar System when doing the demonstration you mention in point 2(b). As for why it...
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This is a great explanation :-)
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Thinking of this exercise, how would you adapt it so that parents/carers could do the exercise at home? Post your thoughts below.
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I really like your approach, as well as the approaches below. Encouraging students to do research will help them to build their independent learning skills :-)
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Patricia Skelton made a comment
Welcome to Week 2 everyone! Looking forward to working with all of you this week :-)
