Getting Students to Observe the Night Sky, Even When Your Sky is Cloudy Half the Time

Details Getting Students to Observe the Night Sky, Even When Your Sky is Cloudy Half the Time Getting Students to Observe the Night Sky, Even When Your Sky is Cloudy Half the Time

Jan 2010

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21546611s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #466.11; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.507

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Teachers of introductory astronomy classes often wish to get our students to look at the night sky However, most educational institutions in America are located in regions where cloudy nights are relatively common. This paper describes a low cost way to integrate observations into a course which lacks a dedicated astronomy lab.
Students in two large. general science classes in fall 2008 and spring 2009 were asked to participate in one of two global star-counting projects. The fall project was coordinated by UCAR and asked for observations of the constellation Cygnus (http://www.windows.ucar.edu/citizen_science/starcount/results.html). The spring project was run by Project Globe and asked for observations of the constellation Orion. (http://www.globe.gov/GaN/ ). In both cases, students simply find the constellation, match the star pattern to charts that go to different limiting magnitudes, and report the data to the coordinating organization. A copy of the report is sent to the course instructor. The instructor can ask for additional information.
Did it work? The success of this project was evaluated by analyzing the e-mail messages that students returned in response to the assignment. In both courses, a very large majority of the students actually did the exercise and submitted a report. Students reported that observing the sky in this way was satisfying to them., and sometimes the reports were quite enthusiastic. In spring 2009, some preparatory activies were conducted during class that were designed to sensitize students to the beauty of the sky. Analysis of student reports indicated that these preparatory activities were helpful, but not as helpful as the instructor would like.
This research is part of the Teacher Professional Continuum project at the University of Delaware, which is supported by the National Science Foundation.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Getting Students to Observe the Night Sky, Even When Your Sky is Cloudy Half the Time does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Getting Students to Observe the Night Sky, Even When Your Sky is Cloudy Half the Time, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Getting Students to Observe the Night Sky, Even When Your Sky is Cloudy Half the Time will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1887259