Calvin-Rehoboth Robotic Twin Telescopes

天文学(11)这个项目正在调整和实施一个互补望远镜的模型--一个是本地的，一个是远程的--这是爱荷华大学首创的。研究人员正在安装两台16英寸的望远镜，一台安装在密歇根州大急流城的卡尔文学院，那里的观测有时会受到恶劣天气和光污染的阻碍；另一台安装在新墨西哥州盖洛普附近的雷霍博斯基督教学校，那里是一个偏远的地方，天空更晴朗、更暗。选择这个偏远的地点是建立在这所大学和这所主要为纳瓦霍和祖尼学生服务的高中之间有着百年历史的关系上的。学校的一名教师正在协助安装和维护望远镜，并将其整合到学校的物理课程中。卡尔文学院的学生和教职员工以动手和培训的方式使用当地的望远镜，并使用雷霍博斯基督教学校几乎相同的机器人望远镜进行远程观测。这两台望远镜都为许多学生提供了个人数据，包括为高水平本科生提供的研究质量数据。这种安排提供了一个灵活而可靠的系统，在该系统中，学院的本地望远镜可以在目镜、相机和光谱模式之间切换，学生使用本地望远镜获得的技能立即转移到新墨西哥州的远程望远镜上获取数据。远程望远镜的高效排队操作提供了大量高质量的数据，足以让个别学生利用他们自己的数据集进行各种有趣的物理实验。该项目的成果包括：连续安装和可靠地操作本地望远镜，然后是远程望远镜；对教授天文学课程的卡尔文学院教员及其学生助理进行新设备和程序的培训；对雷霍博斯基督教学校的参与教师进行新设备培训和课程开发方面的协助；将新的观测能力纳入学院的实验室课程和现有的和新开发的课程；加强招收美国原住民学生(在雷霍博斯基督教学校)从事科学工作；在会议上发表演讲，传播该学院的天文实验室模式；与该学院的“支线”高中(除雷霍博斯基督教学校外)发展关系，以便他们能够将新望远镜的使用纳入其科学课程。

Astronomy (11)This project is adapting and implementing a model of complementary telescopes--one local and one remote--pioneered at the University of Iowa. The investigators are installing a pair of 16-inch telescopes, one at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where observing is sometimes hampered by poor weather and light pollution, and one at the Rehoboth Christian School near Gallup, New Mexico, a remote location with clearer and darker skies. The choice of the remote site builds on a century-old relationship between the college and the high school, which serves primarily Navajo and Zuni students. A teacher at the school is assisting with the installation and maintenance of the telescope there and is integrating it into the school's physical science curriculum.Students and faculty at Calvin College use their local telescope in a hands-on and a training mode, and use the nearly identical, robotic telescope at Rehoboth Christian School to make observations remotely. Both telescopes provide individual data for many students, including research-quality data for upper-level undergraduates.This arrangement provides a flexible but reliable system, in which the local telescope at the college can be switched between eyepiece, camera, and spectroscopic modes, and in which skills gained by students using the local telescope immediately transfer to data acquisition on the remote telescope in New Mexico. Efficient queue operation of the remote telescope supplies large quantities of high-quality data, enough for individual students to pursue a wide range of physically interesting experiments with their own data sets.Outcomes of the project include sequential installation and reliable operation of the local, and then the remote, telescope; training in the new equipment and procedures for Calvin College faculty who teach astronomy courses, as well as their student assistants; training in the new equipment and assistance in curriculum development for the participating teacher at Rehoboth Christian School; integration of new observing capabilities into the college's lab curriculum and existing and newly developed courses; enhanced recruitment of Native American students (at Rehoboth Christian School) into careers in science; conference presentations that disseminate the college's model for astronomy labs; and the development of relationships with the college's "feeder" high schools (in addition to Rehoboth Christian School), so that they can incorporate use of the new telescope in their science curricula.