Davidson Institute & Slooh: A National Partnership for Space Education in Israel

Since 2020, the Davidson Institute of Science Education, an independent national science education organization located on the Weizmann Institute campus, has collaborated with Slooh to bring live space exploration into Israeli classrooms. What began as a small-scale pilot has now evolved into a five-year strategic partnership, one that spans multiple regions, sectors, and languages.

This partnership marks Israel as the first country in the world to provide sustained, real-time telescope access to K - 12 students through a national science platform.

Davidson's Long-Term Implementation of Slooh

Over the past five years, Davidson has incorporated Slooh into both informal and formal science education programs across the country:

• 2020 - 2022: Initial implementation in enrichment programs, extracurricular clubs, and STEM magnet schools.

• 2022 - 2023: Formal onboarding of teachers through regional trainings; initial use in public school science classes.

• 2023 - 2024: Translation of the full Quest curriculum into Hebrew and Arabic; pilot begins to scale into rural, Haredi, and Arab schools.

• 2024 - 2025: National pilot launched with 153 invited teachers representing all educational sectors.

• 2025 onward: Planned nationwide rollout across all 4th - 6th grade classrooms.

  
  

Real Integration in Classrooms

In the 2024 - 25 academic year alone:

• 153 teachers were invited to participate across diverse school types

• Teachers created hundreds of live telescope missions

• Real-time astronomy was embedded into the national curriculum framework

• Support systems were deployed by Davidson in both Hebrew and Arabic

One teacher in a Bedouin school outside Rahat described the shift:

"Before Slooh, we never had access to these kinds of tools. My students now believe they can be scientists."

Multiyear Impact

Teachers and students across five years have consistently reported:

• Increased engagement and curiosity in science classes

• More meaningful cross-cultural collaboration (shared missions across schools)

• Higher retention of astronomy and planetary science concepts

• Reinvigorated teacher satisfaction and confidence in using tech in the classroom

From the Pleiades to Jupiter, from eclipse tracking to supernova detection, students have accessed celestial phenomena that once seemed unreachable.

"When my students saw Saturn for the first time, they gasped. They thought it was fake," said a teacher from Beit Shemesh. "Now they know it's real. And they want to see more."

Looking Forward

The Davidson - Slooh partnership is now entering its next phase:

• Expanding Slooh access to every 4th - 6th grade student in Israel

• Cementing national benchmarks in space science education

• Deepening outreach in underserved and tech-scarce communities

• Building a globally recognized model for science equity

"This isn’t about gadgets or telescopes," said a Davidson lead facilitator. "It’s about awe. It’s about giving every child in Israel - secular, religious, Haredi, Arab, Druze, and Bedouin - the ability to see beyond what they thought was possible."

After five years of field-tested engagement, Davidson has proven that curiosity is a national asset - and that Slooh is one of the best tools to nurture it.

Davidson's Multi-Year Implementation of Slooh

Davidson’s astronomy programming has leveraged Slooh in both in-person and remote environments, adapting the platform for different instructional goals. Slooh has been incorporated into gifted science electives, interdisciplinary research modules, and dedicated astronomy units, allowing students to schedule live space missions, complete self-paced Quests, and investigate phenomena across the solar system and deep space.

According to Davidson faculty, the licenses were used for weekly assignments, student-led research projects, and collaborative mission planning. Teachers utilized both live telescope scheduling and archived mission images to scaffold observation-based learning, and each class engaged with multiple Slooh Quests that tied directly to their curriculum maps.

Diverse Student Engagement and Cross-Grade Integration

The 2024 - 2025 cohort represents the most diverse and widespread implementation of Slooh yet at Davidson. The participating teachers spanned core and elective courses, and students ranged from 6th to 12th grade. According to internal reports:

• All 165 students completed multiple missions using both the Chilean and Canary Islands telescopes.

• Students submitted Quest posters summarizing their learning on topics such as lunar geology, the lifecycle of stars, and telescope optics.

• Classrooms participated in "mission night" events, where students shared their observations and mission images with parents and peers.

This structure allowed for differentiated pacing: younger students were guided through introductory Quests such as Moon Phases and Exploring the Sun, while older students undertook advanced topics like Exoplanet Transits, Comet Trajectories, and Deep Sky Navigation.

Faculty Reflections on Impact

Instructor reflections from 2024–2025 highlight the unique value Slooh brought to Davidson's classrooms:

“Slooh helps bring space to life in a way that our textbooks simply can’t. The students take ownership over their learning and become active observers. It’s especially powerful for gifted students, because they can dig as deep as they want into the cosmos.” – Alexandra Horn

“Our students are used to academic freedom, but Slooh gave them something different: the freedom to observe, record, and interpret real-time celestial events. That’s a rare experience, even for adult learners.” – Stephanie Hood

Teachers also praised the ease of implementation and the flexibility of Slooh’s Quests. With some classrooms structured as blended or asynchronous environments, the self-paced and exploratory nature of the platform fit seamlessly into Davidson’s differentiated instruction model.

Student Feedback and Experiential Learning Outcomes

The 2024 - 2025 students consistently expressed high engagement and curiosity when working with Slooh. Several upper school students independently extended their projects beyond class time, using the telescope mission archive to gather data for science fair presentations. Others expressed interest in pursuing careers in astronomy, aerospace engineering, and planetary science as a result of their experience.

A 9th grade student wrote in their course reflection:

“Using Slooh was the highlight of my semester. I loved being able to control a telescope on the other side of the world and actually take my own pictures of nebulae and galaxies. I felt like a real scientist.”

Another senior student commented:

“I was surprised that we could request missions ourselves. The night I watched the Orion Nebula unfold through my screen, I knew I wanted to study astrophysics.”

These experiences confirm a central pedagogical value of Slooh: to transform students from passive learners into active participants in scientific exploration.

Curriculum Alignment and Instructional Design

Davidson’s faculty aligned Slooh’s Quests with national Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and College Board objectives for AP and Honors science classes. The observational data generated by students was used in summative assessments, including lab reports, research presentations, and astronomy portfolios.

Each teacher selected specific Quests based on the skill levels of their students:

• Middle school students completed Solar System and Moon Tracker Quests to build foundational understanding.

• Upper school students tackled Kepler’s Laws, Telescope Calibration, and Planetary Motion modules to integrate physics and astronomy.

• Several students used Slooh’s Space Weather Tracker tools to chart solar activity over several weeks, comparing sunspot patterns to historical data.

  
  

Looking Ahead

With its fifth year of implementation now complete, Davidson Institute plans to continue its partnership with Slooh for the 2025 - 2026 school year. Given the overwhelmingly positive reception and the growing demand from students to explore astronomy more deeply, the school is considering expanding access to additional grades and even integrating Slooh into their summer enrichment programs.

Davidson has also begun discussions on whether to launch a dedicated Slooh Astronomy Club, led by students and mentored by science faculty, to allow for further extracurricular use of the platform.

“For us, Slooh is not just a teaching tool - it’s a doorway to scientific identity,” said Danielle DeGracia. “It allows our students to see themselves as scientists, explorers, and leaders.”

Israel’s classrooms are no longer limited by geography, resources, or the walls of the school. They are now open to the universe!