The basic idea of the current MOOC “Our Fragile Planet” is to empower teachers from all levels of education to teach space- and astronomy-related topics to their students, as was done in the previous three MOOCs. This online course is built in such a way that all teachers can participate, focusing especially on those who are interested in astronomy but never had the opportunity to learn more about it or who have very little background information and do not feel comfortable communicating basic information about our planet to their students.

The course therefore aims at getting you acquainted with the topic of Our Fragile Planet and the ways of effectively introducing it with the help of Space Awareness resources in a relevant curriculum in the science classroom. Furthermore, the course will address questions of diversity related to space sciences and provide guidance and resources for introducing students to a range of space careers.

On the course, we will be reflecting, discussing and sharing with each other about these topics. You will find a community of like-minded professionals on the course who can support each other in improving their classroom practices. We will be using a variety of online tools and social media to communicate with each other and engage in some peer-review activities as part of the course.

The subject of this course will use as pedagogical pillars the aspects learned during the first Space Awareness MOOC, Teaching with Space and Astronomy, such as inquiry-based science education teaching practices, ICT tools, managing diversity in the classroom, maintaining gender balance in the classroom and thematic space careers. Although not mandatory, we strongly encourage you to review and familiarize yourself with the content of this first course, which can be found here, if you haven’t done so already.

You may already join us in the Space Awareness MOOCs Facebook group and share your ideas about the topic on Twitter using #spaceMOOC.