Preface
-
Published:2003
Timothy F. Slater, Michael Zeilik, 2003. "Preface", Insights Into The Universe: Effective Ways to Teach Astronomy, Timothy F. Slater, Michael Zeilik
Download citation file:
So, you are it! You may be a new college faculty member with a background in physics — maybe even astronomy — assigned the challenge of teaching “Astronomy 101,” the introductory astronomy survey course for nonscience majors. Or, you may be a high school teacher with little background in astronomy thrilled to start up an elective course. Or, you may even be a middle school science teacher who has glimpsed excitement in your students’ eyes “turn on” with astronomy topics. Whatever your situation, you are likely seeking new topics and fresh approaches to your teaching. It is to this end we have assembled some great ideas for teaching astronomy in a single volume.
If you instruct at the college level, you have a sticky task. You know that the class will be large (in the United States, the average size is about 300!). You sense (correctly!) that many nonscience students will have a deep fear of “math” — even seemingly simple graphs will befuddle many students. You sigh because “limited resources” means that you will have little help from your supervisor, who has told you to “make the course popular” and “fill the seats; we need those student credit hours.”
Planning for effective instruction involves paying attention to the results of physics and astronomy education research. Here’s the bottom line: The most lucid textbooks and the most brilliant PowerPoint® presentations just will not cut it. You do not achieve excellence in teaching astronomy by simply lecturing more loudly or by presenting the clearest of explanations. In the same way, building an extensive course support website and displaying the most accurate computer modules to a darkened room full of students are insufficient in and of themselves to guarantee that learning will occur. Rather, excellence in teaching astronomy depends on the efforts of a caring and informed teacher weaving a complex set of experiences designed to engage intellectually a diverse audience of learners in the amazing journey that shows the universe is knowable and understandable — the cosmos has meaning! Although numerous creative minds have engaged this worthy challenge to teaching over time, far too many teachers find themselves trying to recreate the proverbial “astronomy teaching” wheel.
For several decades, the pages of the American Association of Physics Teachers journals have served as the primary medium for disseminating innovations in teaching physics and astronomy. Historically, The Physics Teacher journal carried far more articles on teaching physics than astronomy. To ensure that astronomy teaching ideas appeared as a regular feature in each issue of the journal, the TPT AstroNotes column was born. Throughout most of the 1990s, the long-serving editor of The Physics Teacher, Cliff Swartz, along with initial column editor Jennifer Bond Hickman and, later, column editor Timothy F. Slater, began a systematic endeavor to bring some of the most insightful approaches in astronomy teaching to practicing physics and astronomy teachers.
The underlying philosophy was that if astronomy topics were regularly included in TPT, the number of astronomy teaching manuscript submissions might increase substantially. After nearly 90 issues, and culminating with the astronomy teaching-focused December 2000 TPT issue, published in conjunction with the joint meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers and the American Astronomical Society in January of 2001 in San Diego, the effort was deemed a success. Today, The Physics Teacher enjoys substantial manuscript submissions on the topic of astronomy teaching.
Captured in the pages of this volume is a collection of articles and notes from the TPT AstroNotes column representing timeless ideas and classroom-proven strategies for engaging students in the pursuit of learning astronomy. Many have the virtue of focusing on one concept at a time. Nearly all embody a new slant on teaching a topic. Most assuredly, not every approach will work in every context, every time. Achieving excellence in teaching astronomy is a lengthy and arduous journey, just like learning astronomy for the first time. We hope that astronomy teachers, both novice and experienced, will return to these ideas time and time again.
It’s your turn. Do good work! Strive to teach for meaningful understanding of the cosmic connections.
Timothy F. Slater and Michael Zeilik
June 2003