New Technologies for Teaching Introductory Astronomy

该项目涉及对新的教学技术的研究，用于非理科专业的天文学教学。中心目标是让学生参与研究水平的天文学数据集，这样他们就可以通过积极的探索来理解科学的过程。其他目标是使用模型和模拟来传达复杂或抽象的概念，并允许学生以灵活的方式探索多媒体天文学内容。内容开发的主要领域是(1)使用真实数据教授基本物理和天文学概念的交互式Java小应用程序，(2)允许在不同尺度上对宇宙进行3D探索的虚拟世界，(3)自然语言“专家系统”，以回答主题中的问题，以及相关的测试材料，以及(4)数据体系结构，允许通过互联网、语音门户和无线网络上的各种设备灵活地传递这些内容。总体目标是创造一个丰富的学习环境，衡量学生的表现，并能适应不同的学生兴趣和学习风格。在这个项目中开发的工具可以立即应用于远程学习，而且这些技术和交付方式可以很容易地应用于其他科学学科。

This project involves research on new instructional technologies, for use in teaching astronomy to non-science majors. The central goal is to involve students in research-level astronomy data sets, so that they can understand the process of science by active exploration. Other goals are to use models and simulation to convey complex or abstract concepts, and to allow students to explore multimedia astronomy content in flexible ways. The major areas of focus for content development are (1) interactive Java applets that use real data to teach basic physics and astronomy concepts, (2) virtual worlds that allow a 3D exploration of the universe on various scales, (3) a natural language "expert system" to answer questions across the subject matter, with associated testing materials, and (4) a data architecture to allow the flexible delivery of this content over the Internet, via voice portals, and to a variety of devices on the wireless web. The overall goal is a rich learning environment that measures performance and can adapt to different student interests and learning styles. The tools developed in this project have an immediate application for distance learning, and the technologies and modes of delivery can readily be applied across other science subjects.