Slooh, the pioneer in offering live online telescope feeds of the universe and an NGSS-aligned curriculum for school communities worldwide, recently launched the next generation of its online learning platform to make space exploration even easier and more engaging for students and educators alike. The upgraded platform includes enhancements to allow for more interactivity, personalization, and student-driven learning this school year and beyond.
“Slooh provides students, particularly those in Grades 4-8, with a one-of-a-kind experience centered around hands-on, age-appropriate experiential learning,” said Michael Paolucci, founder of Slooh. “From new learning activities to a more intuitive dashboard, the new enhancements flatten the learning curve for new users and emphasize creativity and self-directed learning as students discover the wonders of the universe and collect and analyze astronomical data in real time.”
For students, the platform allows for more interactivity and personalization as students complete Quest learning activities. This includes the ability for students to create custom posters depicting what they discovered using Slooh’s fully autonomous online telescopes. Also, students are now able to participate in independent study programs – focused on citizen science, science communications, and workforce development – designed by Slooh.
For educators, the platform features an improved, more intuitive dashboard and new support resources. This includes on-demand training and onboarding videos, situational awareness of Slooh’s live telescope feeds, and easy search and browse navigation to Slooh’s learning activities. Additional improvements allow educators to easily assign these learning activities and monitor student progress, as well as integrate Slooh with popular learning management systems including Schoology, Brightspace, and Google Education.
This fall, a third observatory in Australia will be coming online to provide 24/7 viewing access to the night sky. It will join Slooh’s two other user-controlled robotic telescopes in the Canary Islands and Chile, which provide the ability for students to view celestial phenomena, capture and analyze observational data, and participate in gamified learning through the company’s patented technology.
“We know studying space can open students’ eyes to potential STEM pathways and careers, so we want as many students as possible, regardless of their location or demographics, to have access to space observatories,” said Paolucci. “We look forward to supporting students across the nation and beyond this school year and can’t wait to see the different stars, planets, moons, nebulae, and celestial events they discover.”
To learn more about Slooh, visit www.slooh.com.
About Slooh
Slooh brings the wonders of space exploration to the public, at school and at home. For almost 20 years, the company has provided the ability to view space phenomena, capture observational data, and engage in gamified learning through its patented user-controlled network of online telescopes and standards-aligned curriculum for upper elementary through post-secondary students around the world. Slooh is funded in part by a National Science Foundation grant. To learn more about Slooh, visit https://www.slooh.com.
