Previous | Session 51 | Next
E.E. Prather, T.F. Slater (University of Arizona CAPER), W.M. Greene (NASA JPL Navigator EPO), M. Thaller (NASA Spitzer EPO), G. Brissenden (University of Arizona CAPER), UA Steward Observatory CAPER Team, NASA JPL Navigator EPO Center for Astrononomy Education Team, NASA Spitzer EPO Team
As part of the education and public outreach efforts of the NASA JPL Navigator and Spitzer EPO Programs along with the American Astronomical Society and the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, astronomy educators affiliated with the Conceptual Astronomy and Physics Education Research (CAPER) Team at the University of Arizona are conducting a series of two- and three-day teaching excellence workshops for college faculty. These regional workshops are being held at community colleges around the country and in conjunction with professional society meetings, such as the American Astronomical Society and the American Association of Physics Teachers, and through the infrastructure of the National Science Foundation’s Summer Chautauqua Workshop program. These interactive teaching excellence workshops focus on dilemmas astronomy teachers face and develop practical solutions for the troubling issues in curriculum, instruction, and assessment. After reviewing the latest research about how students learn, participants define and set measurable student learning goals and objectives for students in their astronomy courses and construct effective course syllabi reflecting the ASTRO 101 goals publicized by the AAS. To improve instruction, participants learn how to create productive learning environments by using interactive lectures, peer instruction, engaging demonstrations, collaborative groups, tutorials, computer-based laboratories, and observational projects. Participants also learn how to write more effective multiple-choice tests and implement authentic assessment strategies including portfolio assessment, performance tasks, and concept maps. Texts used at the workshop include: (i) Learner-Centered Astronomy Teaching, Slater and Adams, Prentice Hall, 2002; (ii) Great Ideas for Teaching Astronomy, Pompea, Brooks Cole, 2000; Insights into the Universe, Slater and Zeilik, and (iv) Lecture-Tutorials for Introductory Astronomy, Adams, Prather, & Slater, Prentice Hall, 2005.
If you would like more information about this abstract, please follow the link to http://caperteam.as.arizona.edu/workshops.html. This link was provided by the author. When you follow it, you will leave the Web site for this meeting; to return, you should use the Back comand on your browser.
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: caper@as.arizona.edu
Previous | Session 51 | Next
Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 5
© 2004. The American Astronomical Society.