Open Your Eyes to the Skies: An Innovative and Interdisciplinary Astronomy/Astrochemistry Teaching Laboratory

天文学（11）这个项目是在历史悠久的伊利诺伊大学天文台大楼（国家历史地标）创建一个多用途的教学实验室，允许学生使用12英寸布拉希尔折射望远镜（1896年完成）和一套较小的望远镜，以及光谱仪，实验室实验和基于计算机的活动，如数据分析。此外，该计划正在开发一系列本科课程，以一种新的方式利用天文台，以实践和主动学习的方式更好地促进科学教育。其中两门课程的目标是非天文学专业的学生，他们选择天文学入门课程来满足大学定量推理的要求。第三门课程的目标是天文学专业的学生，否则他们很少接触到真正的观测和实验。第四门课程是天体化学这一新兴的跨学科领域的第一门实验课程。智力优势：在天文学和天体化学学科中建立一个创新的教学实验室，并为非天文学专业、天文学专业和化学专业开发新课程。pi正在为这些课程以实验室“手册”的形式创造新的学习材料和教学策略，这些手册故意足够模糊，以迫使学生探索手头的科学问题并发展自己的实验技术。该项目还在成功的天文学实验课程（如哈佛大学和加州大学伯克利分校）的基础上实施教育创新，但也通过增加天文光谱学和天体化学的强大功能来推进他们的成果。更广泛的影响：建立一个天文学/天体化学教学实验室，并发展相关课程，利用天文台和学生的自然奇观提供的机会，以新的方式开拓他们对天空的视野。这项工作的更广泛的影响将是更多的科学素养人口（由于非专业人员接触科学方法），更多的天文学专业人口和性别平衡，以及在化学和天文学方面受过更好教育的科学家进入劳动力市场。该项目也可以使美国其他天文部门受益。

Astronomy (11) This project is creating a multi-use teaching laboratory in the historic University of Illinois Observatory building (a National Historic Landmark) that allows students to use the 12 inch Brashear refracting telescope (completed in 1896) and a suite of smaller telescopes together with spectrographs, laboratory experiments, and computer-based activities such as data analysis. In addition, the project is developing an ensemble of undergraduate courses that utilize the Observatory in a new way to better promote science education with a hands-on, active learning approach. Two of these courses target non-astronomy majors who take the introductory astronomy courses to satisfy their quantitative reasoning university requirement. A third course targets astronomy majors, who otherwise get very little exposure to real observing and experimentation. The fourth course is the nation's first laboratory course in the emerging interdisciplinary field of astrochemistry. Intellectual Merit: The work involves the creation of an innovative teaching laboratory in the disciplines of astronomy and astrochemistry, as well as the development of new courses for non-astronomy majors, astronomy majors, and chemistry majors. The PIs are creating new learning materials and teaching strategies in the form of the laboratory "manuals" for these courses, which are deliberately vague enough to force the students to explore the scientific questions at hand and to develop their own experimental techniques. The project is also implementing educational innovations based on successful astronomy laboratory courses (e.g., Harvard and UC Berkeley), but also advancing their achievements with the powerful addition of astronomical spectroscopy and astrochemistry. Broader Impact: The creation of an astronomy/astrochemistry teaching laboratory, and the development of the associated courses, takes advantage of the opportunity presented by the Observatory and students' natural wonder, to open up their eyes to the skies in a new way. The broader impact of this work will be a more scientifically literate population (resulting from non-majors' exposure to the scientific method), a larger and more gender-balanced population of astronomy majors, and better-educated scientists in chemistry and astronomy entering the workforce. The project can also benefit other U.S. astronomy departments.