"The edge of a nearby stellar nursery called NGC 3324, found at the northwest corner of the Carina Nebula, forms the 'mountains' and 'valleys' spanning this image captured by the James Webb Space Telescope." Photo courtesy of science.nasa.gov.
Why is the weather outside cold and snowy one day, while the next day it is warm and sunny? How does the Earth function? How did the solar system form? If you have ever asked these questions, you are asking about Earth and Space Science.
Science teachers Abby Brehm and Ethan Moseman will be introducing a new Earth and Space Science class to Hastings Senior High School beginning next school year.
Earth and space science is an accumulation of different fields of study such as geology, meteorology, oceanography, and astronomy. The class will cover various topics, including plate tectonics, volcanoes, earthquakes, weather, geology, fossil dating, environmental care, the relationship between the moon and the sun, formation of the solar system, stars’ life cycle, galaxies, universe systems, and more.
“Right now, I’m building the class for next semester, so there are some things that are a little unknown, but first semester will be more environmental science based… Our second semester will be more astronomy based… So it’ll be a little bit of everything in the astronomy realm as well,” Brehm said.
The curriculum of the class will follow an interactive style to keep students engaged, on top of the traditional quizzes, tests, and assessments. A wide variety of resources and an online textbook will be used.
“My goal is to use a lot of data analyzing, so we have like [the] NOAA [National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration] for example,” Brehm said. “I’m hoping that we can use some of those simulations and models that are already in place by some of those organizations that use them to forecast weather events or forecast earthquakes.”
The class will be able to satisfy the HHS science graduation requirements, however, due to uncertainty in class size and it being in a developmental stage, the class does not have an honors, advanced placement, or dual-credit option, and it will only have one class taught by Brehm until there are more students. To help make this class successful, Brehm has collaborated with Moseman, for he has a college background in meteorology and has a personal interest in both meteorology and astronomy.
“This is just the beginning of it, so I don’t really know [if the class will later have an honors option]. Me and [Moseman] are the only ones that are super interested in teaching it, so I don’t know where it’s going to go in a couple of years,” Brehm said. “… The plan is for both of us to work together on building a curriculum, it’s usually better when you have insight from different perspectives. Hopefully we have enough students where we can offer more than one section, so we can actually work together throughout the year.”
The creation of the Earth and Space Science class was not sudden. It had been a long-term goal of Brehm, and after receiving support from administration and counselors, the class finally began developing.
“It [had] been a goal of mine actually for a couple of years now to bring this Earth and Space Science class to Hastings High… My original intention is ‘We need to make sure that students are learning about this information sometime in high school,’” Brehm said.
The class was also made to meet educational requirements set by the state of Nebraska. However, it will not be a required science course such as Physical Science and Biology but will provide science credits like Chemistry, Physics, and Human Anatomy and Physiology.
“We are missing out on some standards. So there are state standards that we are supposed to cover Earth and space topics that we don’t,” Brehm said. “They’re not in any of our classes and so we really needed another class to be able to support those standards for the state of Nebraska and the Department of Education.”
An objective of the class is to increase science literacy in daily life. People are often unable to form an opinion on science-related matters like climate change because they lack prior knowledge, or the science classes they took were specific to one field of study.
“My main goal is to have science literacy for our public… Our current classes… chemistry, human anatomy, physics… I’m not sure they’re very relatable to students who are not going to a four-year college,” Brehm said. “My goal is to create a class that deals with our everyday life… things that you read about in the news… they come up in social media… I want students to be able to understand what’s really happening in these processes and why they’re happening. I think that will help get rid of some misinformation that’s out there.”
Another goal of the class is to improve the connection between people and the world around them. Additionally, the broader range of topics also means the class is more appealing to students with varying interests.
“… Weather and climate and why the earth moves sometimes, or why you see a certain star in the sky… Why do you see a solar eclipse? Those are all things that we [have] experienced in our lives, and I think people are intrinsically interested in,” Brehm said.
Brehm’s personal vision for the class is to reignite a passion for science within students. She believes that people sometimes lose interest in science because it is possibly too hard and challenging, or what is offered does not suit some student’s interests.
“I would just like students to be interested in science again. I think once you get to high school, finding kids that actually like science is like a needle in a haystack… When you’re a little kid, you love science. Every little kid loves science, [to] look at earthworms, or play in a puddle. They’re wondering about the world around them,” Brehm said. “I’m hoping with this class it will maybe spark some joy again in science.”
This will be the first time the school has had an Earth and Space Science class, and Brehm wants to experiment with different ideas. At some point, Brehm wants to collaborate with community members, such as those at Hastings Utilities to talk about water quality, the Natural Resources District, and local meteorologists.
“I am hoping to reach out to some community members, so if anybody has any of those links or any ideas of where to reach out to those people, I would be all ears on how to make [the class] better and more involved in the community,” Brehm said.
Brehm, Moseman, and other supporters will be working hard to build the Earth and Space Science class for next year.
“I mean, my summer is probably going to be mostly building the class from scratch just because during the school year, time is very limited and I have a lot to do already, so my summer curriculum hours are definitely going to be spent making this happen,” Brehm said. “I’ve seen a lot of kids be excited about an offering of a class that’s not one that we currently have. For right now, I’m just trying to make science more enjoyable for everybody.”
