Astronomy Laboratory Course Reform at Arizona State University

亚利桑那州立大学天文学实验室课程改革

• 批准号: 9451484
• 负责人: Peter Wehinger
• 金额: $ 2.5万
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1994
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1994-08-15 至 1997-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9451484&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Astronomy; Laboratory; Course; Reform; Arizona

The project will reform the two-semester introductory Laboratory Astronomy course sequence at Arizona State University by dramatically upgrading the instrumentation and by employing improved pedagogical methods. The laboratory course is offered for general studies credit in conjunction with the Introductory Astronomy lecture course, and the two course sequences together fulfill the laboratory science requirements for undergraduate students (4 credit hours each semester). The enrollment, over 600 students in Laboratory Astronomy each year, is presently capped by limited instrumentation and TA resources. Arizona State University, located in the Phoenix metropolitan area with 300 clear nights a year, is an ideal setting for developing a model laboratory astronomy course based on charge coupled device (CCD) technology. The equipment consists of two PC-controlled 10-inch telescopes and CCD systems plus a grating spectrograph, and ten PC's for image/spectral processing and analysis. The CCD instrumentation on student telescopes will greatly increase the scope of projects due to the increased detection limits over current visual or photographic techniques. Thus lab projects encompassing all aspects of astronomy from planets to stars to galaxies and quasars can be developed in a teaching environment where students learn to do science the way it is actually done. The two-semester course sequence will be taught in student-centered, hands-on, critical-inquiry environments. The course instructor will assume the role of coach, facilitating students' exploration and discovery of scientific principles and laws themselves. The laboratory courses will be coordinated with the lecture courses, so that concepts are introduced in the laboratory before students encounter the concepts in lecture. the reformed lab course will be piloted while the CCD-based labs are being developed, and then the reforms in the general studies astronomy curriculum will be implemented, thereby institution alizing the course reform. The project will produce a laboratory manual containing exercises based entirely on CCD observations using small telescopes will be produced, and will create a computer data base which will become a laboratory astronomy archive containing CCD data (images and spectra) actually collected by students for the projects that are developed. The manual and the CCD data archive will be available for distribution over the Internet, and in hard-copy form, as well as in digital form on a CD-ROM disk for wide dissemination. The project will design an evaluation instrument to test the effectiveness of the course reforms.

该项目将通过大幅升级仪器和采用改进的教学方法，改革亚利桑那州立大学两个学期的入门实验室天文学课程序列。实验课程与天文学导论课程一起提供通识学分，这两门课程顺序共同满足本科生的实验科学要求（每学期4学分）。实验室天文学每年招收600多名学生，目前受限于有限的仪器和助教资源。亚利桑那州立大学位于凤凰城市区，每年有300个晴朗的夜晚，是开发基于电荷耦合器件（CCD）技术的模型实验室天文学课程的理想场所。该设备包括两台PC控制的10英寸望远镜和CCD系统，外加一台光栅光谱仪，以及10台用于图像/光谱处理和分析的PC机。由于当前视觉或摄影技术的检测限制增加，学生望远镜上的CCD仪器将大大增加项目的范围。因此，涵盖天文学各个方面的实验项目，从行星到恒星，从星系到类星体，都可以在教学环境中展开，在这里，学生可以学会按照实际的方式进行科学研究。两个学期的课程顺序将在以学生为中心，动手，批判性探究的环境中教授。课程讲师将承担教练的角色，促进学生自己探索和发现科学原理和规律。实验课程将与课堂课程相协调，使学生在遇到课堂概念之前，先在实验室中介绍概念。在开展以ccd为基础的实验室建设的同时，对实验课程改革进行试点，进而实施通识天文学课程改革，使课程改革制度化。该项目将制作一份实验室手册，其中包含完全基于使用小型望远镜进行的CCD观测的练习，并将创建一个计算机数据库，该数据库将成为实验室天文学档案，其中包含学生为开发的项目实际收集的CCD数据（图像和光谱）。手册和《CCD》数据档案将以硬拷贝形式在互联网上分发，并以数字形式在CD-ROM磁盘上分发，以供广泛传播。该项目将设计一个评估工具来测试课程改革的有效性。