Amateur Astronomy Website & Astronomy Week Projects
The Problem: Astronomical ignorance is more common than common sense.
The Project:
The job of professional astronomers very often includes educating non-astronomers about their field, and amateur astronomers often begin by developing their own websites and wikis to organize all this information. We will, too.
Also, Astronomy Day - the first day of Astronomy Week - is May 10, 2014, and we need to be ready to engage our friends and fellow students in Astronomy all week in our very own Astronomy Week Expo.
Project Activities:
1. Day-by-day this semester, you will develop your own amateur astronomy wiki or website to organize and present the 20 essential astronomy topics investigated in this course. You will link to other online source text and images, and photograph / video / animate / illustrate your own inquiries and investigations inside and outside of class. (The 20 essential astronomy topics on YouTube are homework in this flipped course.)
Other Activities will include:
Weekly Astronomy labs and field work
Use of Stellarium, a free open-source planetarium for your computer
An inflatable planetarium from Fort Hays State University
A Friday night field trip to Lake Afton observatory
A Guest presenter: Kansas Astronomical Observers (http://www.kaowichita.com/)
A Field trip to the Cosmosphere (Teachers: Laurie will tailor-make an agenda for your students upon request – laurieg@cosmo.org)
2. You and a partner will develop an Astronomy Week game / demo / presentation to educate the non-Astronomy student body at our school during their lunch period. You will present on at least ONE day during Astronomy Week (but most students in the past have had so much fun that they ran their table for several days...).
The Project:
The job of professional astronomers very often includes educating non-astronomers about their field, and amateur astronomers often begin by developing their own websites and wikis to organize all this information. We will, too.
Also, Astronomy Day - the first day of Astronomy Week - is May 10, 2014, and we need to be ready to engage our friends and fellow students in Astronomy all week in our very own Astronomy Week Expo.
Project Activities:
1. Day-by-day this semester, you will develop your own amateur astronomy wiki or website to organize and present the 20 essential astronomy topics investigated in this course. You will link to other online source text and images, and photograph / video / animate / illustrate your own inquiries and investigations inside and outside of class. (The 20 essential astronomy topics on YouTube are homework in this flipped course.)
Other Activities will include:
Weekly Astronomy labs and field work
Use of Stellarium, a free open-source planetarium for your computer
An inflatable planetarium from Fort Hays State University
A Friday night field trip to Lake Afton observatory
A Guest presenter: Kansas Astronomical Observers (http://www.kaowichita.com/)
A Field trip to the Cosmosphere (Teachers: Laurie will tailor-make an agenda for your students upon request – laurieg@cosmo.org)
2. You and a partner will develop an Astronomy Week game / demo / presentation to educate the non-Astronomy student body at our school during their lunch period. You will present on at least ONE day during Astronomy Week (but most students in the past have had so much fun that they ran their table for several days...).