Published: February 20, 2024
Mr. Blackwell writes:
- In intro astronomy, my students learn about multiwavelength observing, a challenge to those who have never experienced or used it in science. From X-ray to radio, my students use a variety of tools including NED and IRSA for projects which have them doing multi-wavelength studies of a given object, be it a supernova remnant, a star forming region, an AGN, etc.
- In Selected Topics (Winter term), my students now have the above skillset and are set free to make inquiries about objects of their own interest. We combine this with datas collected at our observatory (photometric, astrometric, or spectroscopic). They essentially are building their skillset and becoming more confident in their study methods.
- Spring Term Advanced Methods has my students looking at large data sets, mostly NED, but also IRSA and SDSS to make inquiries about object types (AGN, Galaxies in General, Star forming regions, etc). This has them wading through numbers, tables, SQL sets and more to arrive at ways of better understanding the modern situation coming fast to astronomers near you.... Think: petabytes-per-night-type data when they become astronomers in their own right.
- We also hold a biennial Astronomy Education Conference in which NITARP as a whole plays a part in being one of the premier offerings for teachers of astronomy desiring to get authentic science work done in the classroom.