Category Archives: astro 101
Why do we teach astronomy?
I just spent a week in Seattle at the 217th Meeting of the American Astronomical Society. If you’re here via my Twitter feed, you’ve been bombarded with my #aas217 tweets. I’ll be sharing some thoughts and experiences in future posts. … Continue reading
Evidence of Learning in Astronomy
Throughout the Sep-Dec, 2010 term, I worked with an astronomy instructor to create a more learner-centered classroom. As I described elsewhere, we spent just over one third of the instructional time on interactive activities: think-pair-share using clickers, lecture-tutorial worksheets, ranking … Continue reading
But did they learn anything?
The course transformations I work on through the Carl Wieman Science Education Initiative (CWSEI) in Physics and Astronomy at UBC are based on a 3-pillared approach: figure out what students should learn (by writing learning goals) teach those concepts with … Continue reading
Wasn’t expecting Him in class
In the #astro101 class I’m working on, we just reached the “what is life” section. Great timing, considering the new @NASA astrobiology discovery of a bacteria that, unlike every other living creature, uses arsenic instead of phosphorus in its DNA. … Continue reading
Graph the graph on the graph
I was creating a worksheet for our #astro101 class about the expansion of the Universe. If the Universe is expanding at a uniform rate, it’s about 14 billion years old. If the expansion is accelerating (decelerating), a little logic tells … Continue reading
