astronomy

Tom Lowrie (professor)

Tom Lowrie (professor) is a astronomy topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tom Lowrie (professor) rather than just read about it. In short: Professor Tom Lowrie was appointed a Centenary Professor at the University of Canberra, Australia, in 2014. He has an established international research profile in the discipline area of STEM education and mathematics education.

Key takeaways

Tom Lowrie (professor) belongs to astronomy; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tom Lowrie (professor) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tom Lowrie (professor) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Professor Tom Lowrie was appointed a Centenary Professor at the University of Canberra, Australia, in 2014. He has an established international research profile in the discipline area of STEM education and mathematics education.

Career Lowrie began his teaching career in 1986. He has taught in a number of primary school and university settings (including Australia, Canada, and the United States) over the past twenty years. His positions have included working as a primary school classroom teacher, teaching mathematics education and research method courses to undergraduate and postgraduate students at Charles Sturt University (CSU), and working with classroom teachers on curriculum frameworks. He received his PhD in 1996 from the University of Newcastle. From 2007 to early 2014, Lowrie was Director of the Research Institute for Professional Practice, Learning and Education (RIPPLE), a strategic research institute at CSU which investigates the nature of professional practice and its impact and influence on industry and other professional stakeholders and communities. As Director, Lowrie coordinated and supported the research activity of key researchers and doctoral students. He also managed the international collaborations of a network of researchers contributing to the understanding and application of knowledge about professional practice. In 2014, Lowrie was appointed as one of the University of Canberra's Centenary Professors. He works in the Faculty of Education as the Director of the STEM Education Research Centre.

STEM Program Lowrie is program director of the nationwide Early Learning STEM Australia (ELSA) program. ELSA is a play-based digital learning program for children in preschool to explore science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Lowrie's STEM Practices encourage children to ask questions, make predictions, experiment, and reflect on what happened and why. The ELSA Pilot is a key early childhood initiative of the Australian Government. In 2020, the ELSA program was awarded further funding to develop STEM curriculum for Foundation - Year 2 students throughout Australia.

Research focus Lowrie has an international research profile in the discipline area of mathematics education. His concentrated and sustained (over almost 20 years) body of work has focused on the extent to which primary-aged students use spatial reasoning and visual imagery to solve mathematics problems and the role and nature of graphics in mathematics assessment. More recently, his research has expanded to include students use of digital tools and dynamic imagery to solve problems. Lowrie received a number of grants from the Australian Research Council (ARC), amongst others. Lowrie's research has been disseminated in national and international periodicals and conference proceedings. His work has been communicated at conferences in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore, Korea, China, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Greece, Indonesia, and The Netherlands. He has also been a keynote speaker at several national and international education conferences.

Spatial reasoning in mathematics Lowrie has undertaken a number of research projects to develop spatial curriculum for promoting mathematics understanding in both primary and secondary classrooms. This modified curriculum has supported students in developing their problem-solving skills through a range of spatial activities. Lowrie's spatial curriculum has consistently led to improvements in mathematics performance for children in primary and secondary school.

Graphical languages in mathematics Two of Lowrie's most well known studies are the ARC-funded projects: Graphical Languages in Mathematics (GLIM) [2008–11]; and Early Primary Graphical Languages in Mathematics (EPGLIM) [2009–11]—undertaken with Professor Carmel Diezmann (Queensland University of Technology, Australia). Together, the research focused on children's understanding of graphics in mathematics, specifically primary students aged 8 to 12 years. The aim of the research was to understand how children learn about general purpose graphical languages that are important in mathematics (such as graphs, diagrams, charts, tables, and maps). In this day and age, it is essential that all children have the skills to interpret the graphical languages that are such a large part of the mathematics curriculum. By monitoring the development of students' knowledge of information graphics, an understanding was formed of how children 'code-break' the different types of graphics that they encounter in their everyday mathematics lessons.

Processing mathematics tasks From 2013 to 2015, Lowrie conducted a research project funded by the ARC on the processing of mathematics tasks. The project aimed to better understand how students process mathematics tasks so the move toward digital assessment can be managed effectively within classrooms to promote assessment for learning.

Social and geographic location and its impact on mathematics teaching and learning Lowrie conducted research with Professor Robyn Jorgensen through an ARC grant from 2012-2014 for a large-scale mathematics research project that aims to better understand the factors that impact on student learning in mathematics, specifically teachers' practices in creating strong learning environments. The results of the study helped understanding around how social and geographic location may impact on mathematics teaching and learning.

Promoting mathematics engagement and learning opportunities for disadvantaged communities in West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia A $3,400,000 research project that aims to advance innovative practices that will build teachers' capacity in mathematics teaching and engage Grade 7-9 students, particularly girls, in mathematics learning in West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), Indonesia (the Country's second most disadvantaged province). The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade funded the project, from their Government Partnership for Foreign Development (GPFD) scheme. Other partners include: IKIP Mataram (The Institute of Teacher Training and Education); The Provincial Office of the Ministry of Education Sports and Youth in West Nusa Tenggara (DIKPORA); Institute for Education Quality Assurance (LPMP); and the Provincial Office of Ministry of Religion (DEPAG).

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tom Lowrie (professor)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tom Lowrie (professor) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In astronomy, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tom Lowrie (professor) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tom Lowrie (professor) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tom Lowrie (professor)

In research: Tom Lowrie (professor) appears in astronomy research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tom Lowrie (professor) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tom Lowrie (professor) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1964 births, Academic staff of Charles Sturt University, Academic staff of the University of Canberra, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tom Lowrie (professor) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Tom Lowrie (professor)” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Tom Lowrie (professor) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tom Lowrie (professor) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tom Lowrie (professor) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tom Lowrie (professor) in simple terms?

Why does Tom Lowrie (professor) matter?

Because it connects several astronomy ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tom Lowrie (professor)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tom Lowrie (professor).