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Session 14 - Education & Abstract Services.
Oral session, Monday, June 09
North Main Hall B,
For college classrooms, we are developing web-based educational resources in astronomy and planetary sciences, addressable by topic or by approach. The topics of these modular resources are either material fundamental to astronomy and planetary science, material not normally found in courses or texts, or material on the science news forefront. One of our goals is to work toward a more participatory, learner-centered classroom, where hands-on, participatory activities are used to reinforce the students understanding of the key concepts. A second goal is to provide a model of good pedagogy for preservice teachers. For the students to gain an intuitive grasp of the key concepts described in our WWW modules, the theme of "Life in the Universe" is used as a catalyst in a set of lab exercises two of us (CEW, CKW) have developed. In particular, one of these labs will soon allow the students to remotely control the on-site 12' Student Radio Telescope (SRT) and corresponding receiver over the Web from a classroom or dorm room. Sarah O'Brien and Yancy Shirley, both undergraduate astronomy/physics majors, have been responsible for implementing the remote control capability of the SRT and receiver; O'Brien will be responsible in the near future for making the lab exercise Web-based.
