Slooh, the pioneer in providing live online telescope feeds of the universe and an NGSS-aligned curriculum for school communities worldwide, recently introduced the next generation of its online learning platform to make space exploration more accessible and more engaging for students and educators alike. The upgraded platform includes enhancements for more interactivity, personalization, and student-driven learning this school year and beyond.
The platform enables greater involvement and personalization as students complete Quest learning activities. Students can design bespoke posters portraying their discoveries using Slooh’s autonomous online telescopes. Students can also participate in Slooh-designed independent study programmes focusing on citizen science, science communication, and workforce development.
The portal features an enhanced, more intuitive dashboard and more educator resources. This includes on-demand training and onboarding films, live telescope feed situational awareness, and simple search and browse access to its learning activities. Additional enhancements make it easier for instructors to assign these learning activities, track student progress, and integrate Slooh with popular learning management systems like Schoology, Brightspace, and Google Education.
Speaking about the initiative, the Founder of Slooh, Michael Paolucci, said:
Slooh provides students, particularly those in Grades 4-8, with a one-of-a-kind experience centred around hands-on, age-appropriate experiential learning. From new learning activities to a more intuitive dashboard, the latest enhancements flatten the learning curve for new users and emphasize creativity and self-directed learning as students discover the universe’s wonders and collect and analyze astronomical data in real-time.
A third observatory in Australia will open in the fall, providing 24/7 access to the night sky. It will join Slooh’s two other user-controlled robotic telescopes in the Canary Islands and Chile, which allow students to observe celestial phenomena, collect and analyze observational data, and engage in gamified learning using the company’s unique technology.
Paolucci added:
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. We look forward to supporting students nationwide and beyond this school year and can’t wait to see the different stars, planets, moons, nebulae, and celestial events they discover.
Slooh’s vision is to bind people together through communal universe exploration. The company believes space is the ideal context to acknowledge its common journey on this planet and strengthen global fellowship and citizenship. It is dedicated to enabling anybody to learn to explore space by developing an inclusive online platform that gathers students, educators, and others around live telescopes to allow them to see the universe for themselves and exchange their thoughts.
To fulfil its mission of providing 24-hour coverage of the night sky, the startup expanded its network of observatories in the Southern Hemisphere to Chile and Australia in collaboration with the Catholic University and the Southern Robotic Observatory Facility in Siding Spring, respectively. Slooh also signed a partnership agreement with SECMOL to build an observatory in Ladakh, India, in 2024.
Slooh members have reserved over a million missions, viewed over 50,000 unique celestial objects, captured over ten million images, shared 25,000 Observations, started 70,000 Quests, and amassed over 23 million Gravity Points.
