all about women the forgotten women of astronomy
digital education stream 2020 teacher resources Welcome
Sydney Opera House is one of the indisputable Did You Know…? masterpieces of human creativity and has long been a place for learning and sharing knowledge. The original cost estimate to build Sydney Opera House was The land on which Sydney Opera House stands $7 million. The final cost was was known to its traditional custodians, the $102 million and it was largely paid for by a State Lottery. Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, as Tubowgule, meaning “where the knowledge There are more than 1 million roof tiles covering approximately waters meet”. A stream carried fresh water down 1.62 hectares sitting over the from what is now Pitt Street to the cove near structure. They were made in Sweden. Tubowgule, a rock promontory that at high tide became an island. The mixing of fresh and salt The Sydney Opera House sails were built using three tower waters formed a perfect fishing ground. Middens cranes made in France for this of shells were a testament to Tubowgule’s long job, costing $100,000 each. Sydney Opera House was one history as a place where the Gadigal gathered, of the first buildings constructed feasted, sung, danced and told stories. in Australia using tower cranes. The Playhouse was originally used as a cinema and in the late 1970s was a popular venue for surfing movies.
In this program
3 Introduction 11 Pre-Talk Activities 4 All About Women Festival 14 Post-Talk Activities 5 The Creative Learning Journey 16 Additional Website Resources 6 Sydney Opera House 18 At the Sydney Opera House Creativity Framework 7 Talk Description and Synopsis 8 Meet the Speaker 9 Q&A with Jo Dunkley Introduction
These Creative Learning Resources have been prepared to help you get the most out of the All About Women Digital Education Stream – The Forgotten Women in Astronomy talk, coming to your classroom to celebrate International Women’s Day. These resources have been collated to help prepare your students to unpack the talk and think deeply about it.
You should use and adapt these Resources to suit the age and stage of your class and the curriculum foci and outcomes used in your school. These Resources are written as a creative document for you to bring to life. If you have questions about exercises or provocations please feel free to make contact to talk it through. We are always open to feedback, comments and working with you to assist and learn from you. Contact details are on the back page.
Some websites are suggested throughout this resource. It is recommended that you first talk the sites and assess the suitability of the content for your particular school environment before setting the activities based on these.
Sydney Opera House has a bank of Creative Learning Resources for you to access and use. Please have a look around our website for other resources and activities that could support your classroom learning program.
Acknowledgements Grateful thanks are extended to all the speakers who have generously allowed their resources to be included in this document.
3 All About Women Festival
For the eighth year running, our talks and ideas festival, All About Women, celebrates International Women's Day with Sydney’s favourite feminist gathering - full of talks, panels and workshops. International Women’s Day is dedicated to gender equality and justice. It is an opportunity to raise awareness and take action. At the festival you will hear from remarkable thinkers, whose work breaks down the everyday structures that limit the female experience, as they discuss the latest thinking on gender, power, history, justice and technology.
All About Women is about being part of your local community and join the global movement. It is an opportunity to gather, learn, reflect, and be challenged. It is a celebration of feminism for every person who is affected by the patriarchy.
4 The Creative Learning Journey
Before the Talk After the Talk
Begin your Continue the Listen and Watch Creative Learning Creative Exploration Use our digital content Journey Follow up the Stream pieces on our social Have your students with the Post talk media channels in think about the activities and continue your classroom. Our themes of the talk with the conversation with podcast Arty Farty for information and your students. What creative conversations activities in these questions did they feel or Behind the Scenes Creative Learning weren’t asked? Where on YouTube to give Teachers Resources. could they go to get you more insight into Check out the video this information? What world of the Sydney and links page to did they think were the Opera House and the initiative topics of biggest learnings from exciting things that discussion and dive the session? Can you happen here. into the recommended develop any projects reading list written by out of the learnings? experts in these areas. Sign up for another Free Livestream We offer an annual program of livestreamed Performances, Workshops and Artist Talks to further extend the learning journey of your students. Free for all Australian Schools and offered throughout the year.
5 Sydney Opera House Creativity Framework
These Creative Learning Resources have been written using the Sydney Opera House Creativity Framework as the pedagogy. The Framework aims to define the creative process in a way that educators can use to teach and be inspired by.
At a glance this Creativity Framework is:
Prepare Question Show Tools and Pathways Analysis, investigation Commit, frame, judgement Preparing mind, body, and revelation Performing and presenting space, materials and time Creating new understanding the work by analysing what just happened when honing the Buy in imagination Reflect Presence and Enthusiasm Remembering, Convincing students that Processing, exiting they want to be there Make Creating understanding and Forging form from content healthy memories from the Putting shape to content and creative process and Imagine moving towards a project; product. The Fertile Unknown scripts, composition, Exploring a subject through choreography, project design arts practice. Using form to uncover content. Allowing uncensored expression to reveal new ways of seeing a subject
Whilst written as a sequence, the Sydney Opera House Creativity Framework is not a method or system but a way of articulating the creative process. As the Framework is applied it becomes apparent the sequence dissolves and many of the specific sections live in one exercise. These resources have been written with this in mind.
This Framework underpins the Sydney Opera House Creative Leadership in Learning program that sees schools partner with the House for three years of teacher professional learning, student projects and performances. For more information please see the Sydney Opera House website.
6 Talk Description and Synopsis
Dates: On demand stream at whatever time best suits you from Monday 9 March to Friday 13 March 2020 Years: 7-12 Duration: 60 min Venue: Your classroom
Synopsis Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin and Vera Rubin were three exceptional astronomers who challenged expectations of their time. Despite given limited opportunities in their field these three women overcame the prejudice and stereotypes to make substantial contributions to science. Author of Our Universe An Astronomers Guide Professor of Astrophysics Jo Dunkley unpacks the history of our universe and unearths the contributions of these three women. Professor Jo Dunkley’s talk will make audiences critically think about the world around them – literally!
The topics for exploration - Space, astronomy, women in science, female discoveries, prejudice, stereotypes, female contributions to society
Central Themes - Discovery, exploration, discovery, adversity, female roles
Cross curriculum priority areas - Critical and creative thinking, Intercultural understanding
7 Meet the Speaker
Jo Dunkley
Jo Dunkley is Professor of Physics and Astrophysical Sciences at Princeton University, where she teaches the enormously popular introductory astronomy course. Earlier in her career, Dunkley was part of the science team for NASA’s WMAP space satellite and she now works on the Atacama Cosmology Telescope, the Simons Observatory and the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope.
Dunkley has been the recipient of many awards, including the Maxwell Medal, the Fowler Prize for Astronomy and the Philip Leverhulme Prize. In 2016 she won the Royal Society’s prestigious Rosalind Franklin award for her research in the cosmic microwave background and her innovative project to support and encourage girls studying physics.
8 Q&A with Jo Dunkley
1. Where did your interest in our universe start? My first real interest came in a lecture course on relativity at university – I realised that the world out in space could behave much more strangely than I had thought, and I loved that I could use the laws of physics to explain it.
2. Why do you find the universe so compelling? It’s our bigger home. It is where we live – with Earth just a tiny part of it - and I want to know what’s out there and how it all fits together.
3. What is your particular area of research? I do cosmology, which means the study of the universe as a whole thing. I’m interested in how it began, what it’s made of, how old it is, and things like that. Cosmology is a branch of astronomy.
4. What has your greatest achievement been so far? When I was a post-doc I worked on the analysis of data from a NASA satellite called WMAP, and very briefly got to know the age of the universe better than anyone else. That was a good feeling!
5. Could you tell us about the research you do with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope? This is our telescope high up in the Atacama desert in Chile, up at 5200m altitude. It takes an image of the sky in microwave light, which our eyes aren’t attuned to see. The image shows us how the universe used to look billions of years ago. That’s possible because the light has taken so long to reach us, traveling through space for billions of years. I use this image to learn about how the universe began.
6. In your book which uncovers the big questions about space you also speak about other astronomers. Henrietta Swan Leavitt’s discoveries are remarkable considering the limitations placed on her as a woman. How has the role of women changed in field of astronomy today? Happily it has changed a huge amount. A century ago women were doing remarkable things in astronomy, but they were still officially in supporting roles, and were generally not guiding their own research. They weren’t even allowed to operate the big telescopes. That’s all changed. There are many leading women in astronomy today, building and operating telescopes, and pioneering new discoveries, and the number of women in the field is growing too.
9 7. In your book Our Universe An Astronomers guide you also talk about the achievements of past female astronomers Vera Rubin, Annie Jump Cannon and Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin. Why did you include their stories? I found them so compelling myself, particularly as they had to overcome such barriers to be able to do their science. I am grateful to them for making the path easier for those of us who followed. And science happens because of the people who make the discoveries. I wanted to tell their stories of discovery, particularly as they are not as well known as some of their male contemporaries.
8. Do you think that women have been overlooked in the field of science? Historically, yes. In general they are less well known, and they had fewer opportunities to take on leading roles. I think that is changing though, and there are increasingly visible women winning prizes and getting recognition.
9. What would you say to young women who are interested in entering the science field? Do it! It is so exciting. You get to ask new questions all the time, and learn new things every day. It is a real thrill. And don’t be put off by stereotypes of what you think a scientist is, or what they look like. Anyone can be a scientist.
10. What do you want audiences to get from your talk? I want people to learn more about the wonderful universe that we live in, and about how so many discoveries about space were made by a remarkable set of women astronomers.
10 Pre-Talk Activities Science
Stage 4 & 5 1. Watch BBC Ideas Three women who changed how we see the universe Summarise the contributions that Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin and Vera Rubin made to the understanding of the Earth and solar system. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZrPfEDM-Bk
2. Choose one of the females: Henrietta Swan Leavitt, Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin and Vera Rubin and conduct more in-depth research about their discoveries. Present your findings to the class.
3. In the podcast The Infinite Monkey Cage, Series 19 How we measure the Universe Brian Cox, Robin Ince, Professor Jo Dunkley and Dr Adam Masters look at how we estimate the size of the universe. Listen to the podcast and summarise the different methods that are used to measure the universe and how these models, theories and laws have been refined by the scientific community. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0002g8k
Stage 6 1. Analysing Data and Information: In her book Jo Dunkley traces the discoveries of three female astronomers. Analyse the following secondary sources and present their findings in a report: • The Night Sky - How Henrietta Leavitt Changed Our Understanding Of The Universe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hUCzlVym38
• Astronomy - Meet Henrietta Leavitt, the woman who gave us a universal ruler https://astronomy.com/news/2019/02/meet-henrietta-leavitt-the-woman-who-gave-us-a-universal-ruler
• Space- Henrietta Swan Leavitt: Discovered How to Measure Stellar Distances https://www.space.com/34708-henrietta-swan-leavitt-biography.html
• Dr. Pangratios Papacosta Henrietta Leavitt: Unsung Heroine in Science https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70cFwfNW7gQ
• World Science Festival: Science’s Most Elusive Women: Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin & the Women of Harvard Observatory https://www.worldsciencefestival.com/2011/05/cecilia_payne_gaposchkin/ 11 Pre-Talk Activities
• Brown Department of Physics Cecilia Payne-Gaposchki https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2PUStoc09A
• American Institute of Physics ORAL HISTORIES Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4620
• American Institute of Physics ORAL HISTORIES Vera Rubin https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/33963
• The Atlantic - An Influential Female Astronomer Is Getting Her Due: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/01/vera-rubin-observatory/604624/
Society and Culture
Preliminary depth study: The social and cultural world/HSC Depth Study: Social Inclusion and Exclusion 1. Students to read Astrophysics professor Jo Dunkley on the complexities of the universe and her mission to to get women into science and discuss the limitations that society has placed on women in the field of science. https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/books/jo-dunkley-professor-our-universe-an-astronomers-guide-a4052746.html
2. Students to listen to Cross Section: Jo Dunkley – Science Weekly podcast (16:33). In this podcast Jo Dunkley recalls the achievements of three female scientists and the late recognition. Discuss why this recognition has taken time. https://www.theguardian.com/science/audio/2019/feb/01/cross-section-jo-dunkley-science-weekly-podcast
English
Stage 4 1. In the podcast The Infinite Monkey Cage, Series 19 How we measure the Universe Brian Cox, Professor Jo Dunkley and Dr Adam Masters are asked about their feelings about how big the universe is (17:00). Write down your own thoughts about how big you think the universe is. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0002g8k
12 Pre-Talk Activities
2. Conduct research into the achievements of different astronomers and create a profile on the astronomer chosen. Using this information that you have researched write a series of diary entries recounting your experiences in space. You may want to include: what you were researching, what you discovered, how you felt about the discovery, how society reacted to your discovery etc.
Stage 5 1. Watch BBC Ideas Three women who changed how we see the universe Imagine that you are one of the three female astronomers, write a detailed account of your discovery.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZrPfEDM-Bk
2. Exposition: “Female astronomers are just as capable, if not better than their male counterparts." Conduct more research on the role that women have had in astronomy to address the statement.
Stage 6 1. Find three examples of how female astronomers have been represented in texts. These may be newspaper articles, images, posters, documentaries etc. Deconstruct these texts and highlight how the authors have created meaning.
2. Discuss the statement: There are often invisible structures in society that limit women from gaining equal access to work or education.
13 Post-Talk Activities Science
All Stages 1. Professor Jo Dunkley has been praised about how clearly she explains often very difficult subject matters. Watch the talk Our Universe and choose one of the concepts she talks about. Create your own video that deconstructs this topic for a younger audience. In your video you may choose to create your own visuals and effects to get your point across. https://youtu.be/bFobsse_dZk
2. Watch Jo Dunkley: 2020 Breakthrough Prize Symposium and summarise her findings and how reaches her conclusions. Choose a concept that interests you about the structure of the Earth and universe. Research this concept and write a talk that explains this concept clearly. Present this to your class in the style of a lecture. https://youtu.be/p88oGgK7z1o
3. Choose a concept that interests you about the structure of the Earth and universe. Research this concept and write a talk that explains this concept clearly. Present this to your class in the style of a lecture. https://www.worldsciencefestival.com/2011/05/cecilia_payne_gaposchkin/
Society and Culture
All Stages 1. Reflect on the talk that Professor Jo Dunkley gave. What was the biggest take away you got from the talk? Have a look at Jo Dunkley’s twitter and compose your own tweet that reflects on the talk. https://twitter.com/j_dunkley
2. How have societal attitudes changed in Science? Write a report that discusses what societal expectations have traditionally held about women in science and how they have changed today.
14 Post-Talk Activities
English
All Stages 1. Reflect on what you have learnt about the universe and the individuals who have made these discoveries. Write a creative piece about one of the discoveries.
You may choose a to adopt a persona. Write in a form of your choice.
2. Write a feature article about one of the things you have learnt from the talk.
15 Additional Website Resources
• Jo Dunkley Twitter: https://twitter.com/j_dunkley?lang=en
• The Guardian: Cross Section: Jo Dunkley – Science Weekly Podcast: https://www.theguardian.com/science/audio/2019/feb/01/cross-section-jo-dunkley-science-weekly- podcast
• Evening Standard Astrophysics professor Jo Dunkley on the complexities of the universe and her mission to get women into science: https://www.standard.co.uk/lifestyle/books/jo-dunkley-professor- our-universe-an-astronomers-guide-a4052746.html
• Jo Dunkley: 2020 Breakthrough Prize Symposium https://youtu.be/p88oGgK7z1o
• Jo Dunkley Bristol Festival of Ideas: https://soundcloud.com/bristol-festival-of-ideas/jo-dunkley-1- february-2019
• BBC Ideas Three women who changed how we see the universe: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZrPfEDM-Bk
• Our Universe: https://youtu.be/bFobsse_dZk
• The Night Sky - How Henrietta Leavitt Changed Our Understanding Of The Universe https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hUCzlVym38
• Astronomy - Meet Henrietta Leavitt, the woman who gave us a universal ruler https://astronomy.com/news/2019/02/meet-henrietta-leavitt-the-woman-who-gave-us-a-universal- ruler
• Space- Henrietta Swan Leavitt: Discovered How to Measure Stellar Distances https://www.space.com/34708-henrietta-swan-leavitt-biography.html
• Dr. Pangratios Papacosta Henrietta Leavitt: Unsung Heroine in Science https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70cFwfNW7gQ
• World Science Festival: Science’s Most Elusive Women: Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin & the Women of Harvard Observatory https://www.worldsciencefestival.com/2011/05/cecilia_payne_gaposchkin/
• Brown Department of Physics Cecilia Payne-Gaposchki https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2PUStoc09A
16 Additional Website Resources
• American Institute of Physics ORAL HISTORIES Cecilia Payne-Gaposchkin: https://www.aip.org/history-programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/4620
• American Institute of Physics ORAL HISTORIES Vera Rubin https://www.aip.org/history- programs/niels-bohr-library/oral-histories/33963
• The Atlantic - An Influential Female Astronomer Is Getting Her Due: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2020/01/vera-rubin-observatory/604624/
• Brown Department of Physics Cecilia Payne-Gaposchki https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B2PUStoc09A
17 At the Sydney Opera House Beneath the sails, six venues host a staggering variety of performances. More than 2000 events are held 363 days a year; that’s more than 40 shows a week.
From our largest, the Concert Hall, The Drama Theatre is the more right through to our most intimate, the intimate of our two proscenium arch Utzon Room, our venues host a vast theatres, and seats up to 544 range of shows, from harpsichord guests. True to its name, the Drama music to hard rock, lectures to Theatre is the venue where you’ll find electronica, circus to opera and Bell Shakespeare, Sydney Theatre Co everything in between. and Bangarra Dance Theatre performing. Our stages have been graced by every kind of royalty - actual, intellectual, Twice a year, it fills with lively debate showbiz, even punk-rock. Opera stars, and discussion for the All About world movers and shakers, dancers Women festival and Antidote along and performers of extraordinary talent with iconic music acts, film screenings play to rapturous audiences in every and poetry slams. Artists like Toni space. Collette, Sylvie Guillem, Mel Gibson, Hugo Weaving, Geoffrey Rush, John These are rooms for standing ovations, Cleese and Sir Ian McKellen have all shared moments and treasured ‘trod the boards’ in this room inspirations. To see a show at the Sydney Opera House is to enter a space filled with the crackling energy of great artists and entertainers.
The Forgotten Women of Astronomy is staged in The Drama Theatre
18 Classroom Context and Curriculum Links
This performance provides the classroom teacher with many opportunities for learning activities that link to the New South Wales curriculum. See below for the suggested links to the relevant syllabus, however creative teachers will find many more. KLA Stage 4 Stage 5 Stage 6 - Preliminary Stage 6 - HSC Science SC4-12ES SC5-12ES describes the dynamic describes changing ideas about Physics: Analysing data and information: Physics: Analysing data and nature of models, theories the structure of the Earth and PH11/12-5 information: PH11/12-5 and laws in developing the universe to illustrate how scientific understanding of models, theories and laws are analyses and evaluates primary and secondary data analyses and evaluates primary and the Earth and solar system refined over time by the scientific community and information secondary data and information
Society and P1 identifies and applies social and cultural H1 evaluates and effectively applies social Culture concepts and cultural concepts
P2 describes personal, social and cultural identity H2 explains the development of personal, social and cultural identity P3 identifies and describes relationships and interactions within and between social and cultural H3 analyses relationships and interactions groups within and between social and cultural groups English EN4-5C thinks imaginatively, EN5-5C thinks imaginatively, EN11-5 thinks imaginatively, creatively, EN12-5 thinks imaginatively, creatively, C think in ways that creatively, interpretively and creatively, interpretively and interpretively and analytically to respond to and interpretively, analytically and discerningly are imaginative, critically about information, critically about information and compose texts that include considered and detailed to respond to and compose texts that creative, interpretive ideas and arguments to increasingly complex ideas and information, ideas and arguments include considered and detailed and critical respond to and compose arguments to respond to and information, ideas and arguments texts compose texts in a range of context English EN4-7D demonstrates EN5-7D understands and EN11-7 understands and explains the diverse ways EN12-7 explains and evaluates the diverse D express understanding of how texts evaluates the diverse ways texts texts can represent personal and public worlds ways texts can represent personal and themselves and can express aspects of their can represent personal and public worlds their relationships broadening world and their public worlds with others and their relationships within it world
General capabilities and cross-curriculum
Critical and creative thinking
Intercultural understanding
Keep in touch
Sydney Opera House Creative Learning Bennelong Point Sydney NSW 2000 Australia sydneyoperahouse.com Call us 02 9250 7770 or email [email protected]
Connect with us Facebook /sydneyoperahouse Facebook Group Sydney Opera House for Teachers and Educators
Instagram @sydneyoperahouse
Twitter @sydoperahouse Tag #sydneyoperahouse