Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 2000
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2000aas...197.8719s&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, 197th AAS Meeting, #87.19; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 32, p.1558
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
We have created two series of computer based undergraduate astronomy laboratory exercises (one for the solar system and one for stars and galaxies). These exercises are built around key historical observations that provided critical evidence to advance astronomical thought, such as Galileo's observations of the phases of Venus or Roemer's clever estimate of the speed of light using the Galilean satellites of Jupiter. These labs are self-contained, providing the necessary data in tabular form or connected to appropriate Contemporary Laboratory Experiences in Astronomy (CLEA) labs to simulate data acquistion. They serve as a robust set of poor weather exercises to complement actual telescope based observing labs. We targeted a ubiquitous spreadsheet program (MS Excel) as our primary software analysis tool because of its nearly universal installation in campus computer classrooms and since it requires only a rudimentary computer facility to use successfully. We have tested and modified these labs in the context of our undergraduate astronomy labs which are open to all majors with a minimum of prerequisites. Students show an increased retention for topics often only briefly covered in lecture classes and a greater appreciation of the process by which a scientist mathematically models experimental data.
Kingham M. I.
Slovak Mark H.
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