tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-56656515682493653502011-09-13T07:52:15.871-04:00P.E. Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00257562139525957192noreply@blogger.comBlogger261100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-11763942784555847742010-09-15T15:10:00.001-04:002010-09-15T15:16:24.801-04:00

Founded in 2009, Dark Skies Bright Kids (http://www.astro.virginia.edu/dsbk) is an astronomy outreach group based at the University of Virginia whose core mission is to enhance science education for elementary school students. We seek to foster the natural curiosity of children by helping them to explore the Universe in a social setting with fun, hands-on activities. For one of those activities,

Tim Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14493107260858048819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-39576375997212335002010-08-05T17:14:00.003-04:002010-08-05T18:06:52.840-04:00

A new collection of tutorials by Jessica Smay and Karen Kortz helps to flesh out planetary topics.I am recently returned from Boulder, Colorado where I attended Cosmos in the Classroom 2010, a conference on astronomy education held every three years and hosted by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific. I'll be writing a few posts about the meeting, but I'll start with telling you about an

P.E. Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00257562139525957192noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-9682315490213354782010-01-18T13:16:00.006-05:002010-01-20T10:02:22.720-05:00

At the American Astronomical Society meeting recently held in Washington, D.C., I was pleased to attend four astronomy education presentation sessions (not including all the public outreach and new media sessions!) and several poster sessions related to astro 101 teaching. I can remember going to AAS meetings not so long ago where education and education research was held in low regard. Perhaps

P.E. Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00257562139525957192noreply@blogger.com31tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-13432754231990274242010-01-14T14:08:00.003-05:002010-01-14T14:34:14.915-05:00

Scott Miller, of Sam Houston State University, has a set of video demonstrations for astro 101 that are freely available on the web.At the recent AAS meeting in Washington, D.C., I attended all of the astro 101 education sessions. It is no surprise that web content is being used widely in astro 101 classes, from research-based education to classes and conferences within Second Life. Scott

P.E. Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00257562139525957192noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-84723241437222058992010-01-13T17:06:00.003-05:002010-01-14T14:06:54.951-05:00

At the January 2010 AAS meeting, Western Kentucky’s Richard Geldermanpresented the fascinating results of a study where his team took agroup of teachers to the newly constructed and so far well-attendedCreation Museum near Cincinnati (REF 1, 2). He reported that afterattending a tour, he was disappointed to find that, although theparticipating science teachers enthusiastically believed a

Tim Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14493107260858048819noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-52507090483067370212009-12-22T17:15:00.006-05:002010-01-08T08:46:54.841-05:00

HOLDING AN ASTRO 101 MINI-SCIENCE CONFERENCEA commonly assigned task for college courses is an end-of-term project or term paper. The tacit goal for such an assignment surrounds encouraging students to take a closer look at a particular aspect of one of the course topics and develop a deeper and more thorough understanding of it. At first glance, this seems to be a reasonable pedagogical strategy

Tim Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14493107260858048819noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-14596676119980539992009-12-08T11:27:00.002-05:002010-01-08T08:53:59.481-05:00

At the November 2009 AAPT/APS New Faculty Workshop for physics and astronomy 
professors, Brian Lane accepted Tim Slater's challenge about turning off 
Outlook Email for one hour each day. It seemed to really make a difference, 
so, out of curiosity, Brian kept track of the number of e-mails he sent and 
received each day for a week. The results are very interesting. He has 
posted the data &

Tim Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14493107260858048819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-3958708399497516552009-10-14T21:49:00.003-04:002009-10-14T22:07:02.405-04:00

The October 2009 issue of Physics Today has an informative and worthwhile http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.3248478">summary of efforts to replicate Hake-style physics-education research within the Astro 101 domain.I really this webspace has turned into an abandonblog, but I'll try to be better about updating. Physics Today, the trade magazine/journal for physicists has an October feature on astronomy

P.E. Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00257562139525957192noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-37851421790143454932008-11-22T12:34:00.003-05:002008-11-22T12:50:44.441-05:00

Astronomy educators have an email community, the astrolrner listserve, with whom they can discuss the teaching and learning issues of Astronomy 101. If you are an astronomy teacher, you should join!At the risk of repeating information that many readers may know about, I wanted to make quick post about the astrolrner listserve, the email discussion group for astronomy teachers, hosted by the

P.E. Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00257562139525957192noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-83734653300045577392008-11-22T12:12:00.003-05:002008-11-22T12:33:05.192-05:00

Brogt, et al, have completed a series of articles for Astronomy Education Review on ethical considerations while conducting astronomy education research. The articles help researchers become familiar with IRB processes, and the legalese behind researching students. The final article proposes a set of guidelines for our own field of astro ed. Erik Brogt and his collaborators have written a

P.E. Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00257562139525957192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-66231504752191061922008-08-03T17:30:00.005-04:002008-08-03T17:41:37.907-04:00

This summer, I experienced first-hand the Physics by Inquiry (PbI) curriculum. Here, I give my thoughts on it, and describe a plan to use the PbI astronomy modules in my Astro 101 course.This summer, I began work in the Master of Science in Science Education (MSSE) program at Montana State University. Two of my on-campus summer courses were out of the Physics by Inquiry curriculum. One course

P.E. Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00257562139525957192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-68972672548834362202008-06-10T16:15:00.003-04:002008-08-03T00:30:23.509-04:00

Textbook or No TextbookThe question of if and which textbook often comes up among astronomy teachers and the opinions range pretty widely – when opinions range widely, I love to get into the frey, so here goes my $0.02.Most folks who have moved away from textbooks entirely face a pretty serious problem in that the professor and the professor’s notes become the sole source of knowledge and

Tim Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14493107260858048819noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-39543148911880975932008-05-08T15:18:00.003-04:002008-08-03T00:33:51.222-04:00

Job Announcement: Editor, Astronomy Education Review2000 Florida Avenue, NWSuite 400Washington, DC 20009Email Submission Address: timslaterwyo@gmail.com(subject line: AER Editor Search)Applications will be reviewed starting June 15 and will continue until position is filled.Attention: Tim Slater, Chair, AER Editor Search CommitteeThe American Astronomical Society is soliciting applications and

Tim Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14493107260858048819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-46995591041443789422008-04-25T20:53:00.004-04:002008-04-25T21:01:31.596-04:00

The internet not only lets you show your students images of galaxy collisions, but it also let you simulate the events.Around this time of the semester, I am covering galaxies, large-scale structure, and cosmology. The other day, the folks at the HST released a wonderful webpage filled with the best Hubble images of galaxy collisions I have ever seen. Scroll to the bottom of that page to see

P.E. Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00257562139525957192noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-60419182594190600792008-04-05T18:38:00.005-04:002008-04-05T19:09:55.872-04:00

New action research, published in the April issue of The Physics Teacher, discusses the use of clickers versus flash cards in the aid of peer instruction.The first time I attended a Center for Astronomy Education (CAE) Teaching Excellence workshop was also the first time I had really seen the technique of peer instruction. By "peer instruction", I mean the kind promoted by Eric Mazur: A class

P.E. Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00257562139525957192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-28260377543232878582008-03-28T10:30:00.004-04:002008-03-28T10:52:08.524-04:00

In April, a new film called Expelled will attempt to poison the well of public opinion about science education. It is a propaganda piece for Intelligent Design. Even astronomy teachers should be aware of its message. Here's why. Science is not a dogma. It is a process.A major responsibility we have in teaching any introductory science course, including astronomy, is to discuss how the

P.E. Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00257562139525957192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-61798979255235873112008-03-27T20:09:00.002-04:002008-03-28T08:23:41.565-04:00

Lecture is often the process by which what is written on the professor’s notes gets transferred into students’ notebooks without passing through the brains of either.It seems like all the hard work should pay off, doesn’t it? You’ve been working feverishly on preparing your lecture notes to carefully cover all the many ideas for the topic. You’ve been madly searching Internet sites to find just

Tim Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14493107260858048819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-30373250027902436392008-02-26T21:59:00.004-05:002008-03-16T12:53:04.736-04:00

Random thoughts on teaching the nature of science.It is generally accepted that successful science education results in learners developing a meaningful understanding of the nature of science. In fact, the various guidelines for what should be taught in introductory science courses throughout the educational levels uniformly state that students should develop an understanding of the nature of

Tim Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14493107260858048819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-40417622494795574142008-02-13T13:13:00.006-05:002008-02-13T15:13:40.948-05:00

The Teaching Astronomy Blog welcomes a guest contributer: Tim Slater!Off hand essay on engaging students to think about finding life beyond Earth...Often when giving public talks on astrobiology and searching for extraterrestrial life, an oft posed end of lecture question is, “why are we looking for bacteria instead of for living things?” Now, I know this is a common question, so I try to make a

Tim Slaterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14493107260858048819noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-91744815752977478512008-01-14T19:54:00.000-05:002008-01-14T20:09:43.348-05:00

Comments and discussion in reference to Kristine Larson's January 2008 AER article entitled "This I Believe Understand: The Importance of Banning the B-Word from Science".This month, AER published a paper by Kristine Larson on the use of the word “believe” (she refers to it as the “b-word”) in the science classroom. Larson’s article contains a discussion of the abundant misuses of “belief” in

P.E. Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00257562139525957192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-2637059507723330562007-12-10T19:10:00.000-05:002007-12-10T19:29:10.789-05:00

CAE's December 2007 Teaching Strategy is an expanded astro ed research reading list.For those of you who have not looked at the Center for Astronomy Education site this month, I recommend looking at their December teaching strategy. It's a good reading list of astronomy and physics education research articles. The education theory & practice book How People Learn is also on the list. The

P.E. Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00257562139525957192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-54605973959447049472007-12-05T16:20:00.001-05:002007-12-05T20:41:28.310-05:00

The December 2007 issue of The Physics Teacher contains some interesting and relevant pieces for astronomy teachers: the challenges of teaching pre-med students and a great suggestion concerning web videos.Gerd Kortemeyer's article entitled "The Challenge of Teaching Introductory Physics to Premedical Students" is worthwhile reading for teachers of any intro science course. The articles

P.E. Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00257562139525957192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-30026130819823591052007-12-02T16:37:00.000-05:002007-12-17T22:18:23.004-05:00

Below, I give a review of the lecture-tutorial activities that are becoming popular in astronomy (and to a lesser extent, physics) teaching. Links and bibliographic information are given on the books and associated materials, to help teachers find the tutorial material without having to search all over of the internet. I have also included links to three tutorial activities I have written. If

P.E. Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00257562139525957192noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-86729342744993907822007-11-26T20:54:00.001-05:002008-08-03T16:52:23.252-04:00

An annotated list of books useful for pedagogical knowledge in astronomy and physics. This list is biased towards the books that I have read and used. If you know of a useful book that I am leaving out, please comment below.ASTRONOMYSeveral of the books listed in the Astronomy section below are often given (free) to registered participants of the NASA CAE Teaching Excellent

P.E. Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00257562139525957192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-52470463664666575792007-11-26T16:10:00.000-05:002007-11-26T19:12:52.776-05:00

Astronomy education researchers met at a symposium in September and decided to write a charter for the astro ed research community, which will be published and shared with colleagues in academia, professional societies, funding agencies, etc.Astronomy Education Review has a summary of the symposium on their site, with many good recommendations and thoughts. The charter is now on a wiki page

P.E. Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00257562139525957192noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5665651568249365350.post-85282804612986376072007-11-25T17:10:00.000-05:002007-11-25T20:01:47.171-05:00

This blog exists to post about and discuss current research and ideas in science education, particularly as they apply to astronomy and physics.  My name is Paul Robinson and I am a community college teacher.  My primary instructional charge (and interest) is Introductory Astronomy, so that will be the focus of this blog.  However, I have deep interests in physics and general science education,

P.E. Robinsonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00257562139525957192noreply@blogger.com4