Harvard’s ThinkSpace brings hard science to Cambridge grade schools | Harvard Gazette

November 14, 2017
Putnam Avenue Upper School eighth-graders Liam Mahari (left) and Viviany Barbosa Brito work with project director Patricia Udomprasert during a hands-on lab.
Kris Snibbe/Harvard Staff Photographer Harvard scientists and Cambridge Public Schools educators are collaborating on a special-thinking program that uses the WorldWide Telescope platform. Putnam Avenue Upper School eighth-graders Liam Mahari (left) and Viviany Barbosa Brito work with project director Patricia Udomprasert during a hands-on lab.

Many people think seasons are caused by changing distance between the Earth and Sun, an idea that can be reinforced by misleading textbook diagrams. But that’s not the case. To help set the record straight, CfA experts designed the ThinkSpace (Thinking Spatially about the Universe) program to address long-held misconceptions about the cycle of the seasons by focusing on spatial thinking. This fall, through a collaboration with Cambridge Public Schools(CPS), they’re letting local students in on the science.

Read More: 

https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2017/11/harvards-thinkspace-brings-hard-science-to-cambridge-grade-schools/

See also: Education Research, Public Outreach