WORKSHOP ANNOUNCEMENT
College Astronomy Teaching Excellence Workshop

Held from 9am-5pm, Saturday and Sunday, February 11-12, 2006
Tucson, AZ - Pima Community College - Community Campus
401 N Bonita, Tucson, AZ:  http://www.pima.edu/maps/index.shtml?map=6

Sponsored by the NASA JPL Navigator and Spitzer EPO Programs and PCC --
http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov

Astronomy provides a unique environment for teaching the excitement of
scientific inquiry to students.  At the same time, high quality astronomy
teaching presents an ardent challenge because students who most often elect
to take astronomy courses are frequently apprehensive of science and
mathematics courses in general.  Sponsored by the NASA JPL Navigator and
Spitzer SIRTF EPO Programs, this two-day, interactive teaching excellence
workshops focus on dilemmas space science astronomy teachers face and
develop practical solutions for the troubling issues in curriculum,
instruction, and assessment.  Particular emphasis is on teaching non-science
majors at the college level.

In the workshops, after reviewing the latest research about how students
learn, participants define and set measurable student learning goals and
objectives for students in their astronomy courses.  To improve instruction,
participants learn how to create productive learning environments by using
interactive lectures, peer instruction, engaging demonstrations,
collaborative groups, and tutorials.  Participants also learn how to write
more effective multiple-choice tests and implement authentic assessment
strategies including portfolio assessment, performance tasks, and concept
maps with the goal of constructing a syllabus and assignments that improve
student achievement.  Materials presented include resources from: (i)
Learner-Centered Astronomy Teaching, Slater & Adams, Prentice Hall, 2002;
(ii) Great Ideas for Teaching Astronomy, Pompea, Brooks Cole, 2000; (iii)
Lecture-Tutorials for Introductory Astronomy, Adams, Prather, & Slater,
Prentice Hall, 2002; and (iv) Insights into the Universe, Slater & Zeilik,
AAPT Press, 2003.

PRESENTERS:  The presenters Tim Slater and Ed Prather are faculty in the
Conceptual Astronomy and Physics Education Research (CAPER) Team at
University of Arizona's Steward Observatory where their scholarship focuses
on the teaching and learning of space science and astronomy. The workshop
leaders have published numerous articles and books on active learning in
astronomy and have coordinated curriculum development and professional
development projects for professional societies, NASA, and the National
Science Foundation.  Additional presenters will also be asked to
participate.

COSTS:  Participants are responsible for their own travel and lodging
expenses. The majority of costs are being borne by the NASA Center for
Astronomy Education and Pima Community College.

PREREGISTRATION:  Pre-registration is strongly encouraged online at
http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov.  The workshop is held at Pima Community
College - Community Campus, 401 N Bonita, Tucson, AZ, from 9am-5pm each day.

INFORMATION UPDATES: Information updates are posted to URL
http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov as they become available.  If you have
additional questions, please contact Gina Brissenden, caper@...
or telephone 520-626-9480.

Hi all,
      Do any of you know of a good, student-friendly, preferably
free-to-download graphing program that can read in 3-D data and output
a contour or color plot? I have some data of stellar velocities as a
function of ra/dec, and I want to see if I can determine the motion of the
Sun through the galaxy.

  					 Thank you,
  					   Jordan

--------------------------------------------------------
M. Jordan Raddick
Web Content Designer
Johns Hopkins University/Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Phone: (410) 516-8889
raddick@...
http://skyserver.sdss.org

IDL...I believe it's free, but it's not terribly friendly.

-Jatila

--
Jatila van der Veen - Davis
Lubin Group, Physics Department
and Gevirtz Graduate School of Education
University of California, Santa Barbara
lab phone: (805) 893-8418
www.physics.ucsb.edu/~jatila

Jordan Raddick said:
>     Hi all,
>       Do any of you know of a good, student-friendly, preferably
>  free-to-download graphing program that can read in 3-D data and output
>  a contour or color plot? I have some data of stellar velocities as a
>  function of ra/dec, and I want to see if I can determine the motion of
> the
>  Sun through the galaxy.
>
>                                  Thank you,
>                                    Jordan
>
>  --------------------------------------------------------
>  M. Jordan Raddick
>  Web Content Designer
>  Johns Hopkins University/Sloan Digital Sky Survey
>
>  Phone: (410) 516-8889
>  raddick@...
>  http://skyserver.sdss.org
>
>
>
>
>
>
>          YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
>      Visit your group "astrolrner" on the web.
>      To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>  astrolrner-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>      Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
>

On Thu, Jan 05, 2006 at 09:36:33AM -0800, Jatila van der Veen - Davis wrote:
>  IDL...I believe it's free, but it's not terribly friendly.

It's not free in any sense of the word either.

There are 3d routines built into PDL (which is free in all senses of the
word), but it's no friendlier than IDL, *and* it's less documented.

When you say 3d data, do you mean x vs. y vs. flux, i.e. flux(x,y), or
do you mean flux(x,y,z)?

-Rob

--
--Prof. Robert Knop
   Department of Physics & Astronomy, Vanderbilt University
   robert.a.knop@...

IDL is also not even close to being free.   There is a student
license available for something in the ballpark of $99 and it
actually deactivates after a certain amount of time has passed.  I
just renewed my node-locked educational license for $307 (but it
doesn't deactivate).  In any case, IDL is extremely powerful, but
power comes with a price, a steep learning curve (although basic 3-D
plots are not too rough) and a reasonably high price.

I just checked their homepage, and while I have not used it
personally, I know many people who swear by GNUPlot.  Its available
at http://www.gnuplot.info/ and it is free.

Juan

On Jan 5, 2006, at 11:36 AM, Jatila van der Veen - Davis wrote:

>  IDL...I believe it's free, but it's not terribly friendly.
>
> -Jatila
>
> --
> Jatila van der Veen - Davis
> Lubin Group, Physics Department
> and Gevirtz Graduate School of Education
> University of California, Santa Barbara
> lab phone: (805) 893-8418
> www.physics.ucsb.edu/~jatila
>
> Jordan Raddick said:
>>     Hi all,
>>       Do any of you know of a good, student-friendly, preferably
>>  free-to-download graphing program that can read in 3-D data and
>> output
>>  a contour or color plot? I have some data of stellar velocities as a
>>  function of ra/dec, and I want to see if I can determine the
>> motion of
>> the
>>  Sun through the galaxy.
>>
>>                                  Thank you,
>>                                    Jordan
>>
>>  --------------------------------------------------------
>>  M. Jordan Raddick
>>  Web Content Designer
>>  Johns Hopkins University/Sloan Digital Sky Survey
>>
>>  Phone: (410) 516-8889
>>  raddick@...
>>  http://skyserver.sdss.org
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>          YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
>>      Visit your group "astrolrner" on the web.
>>      To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>>  astrolrner-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>>      Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of
>> Service.
>>
>
>
>
>
> <-- This listserv is for discussions related to teaching and
> learning in astronomy; please contact Gina Brissenden at
> gbrissenden@... for more information.  This group is
> sponsored by the NASA Center for Astronomy Education (http://
> astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov). To have yourself removed from this
> list, simply send email to:  astrolrner-
> unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com  -- >
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>

>      Do any of you know of a good, student-friendly, preferably
>free-to-download graphing program that can read in 3-D data and output
>a contour or color plot?


Try GNUplot. It's free and pretty simple to use. You should only need one
commands to read and plot the file. It will do 3-D and contour plots and
allow you to spin the object around using just the mouse. There are
versions for Windows, Linux, and recently, Mac.



Dave Bruning
Physics
University of Wisconsin-Parkside

Dear Astrolrner Readers,

In the fall of 2005, we conducted a multi-institutional study of
students' understanding of concepts related to light and spectroscopy
in introductory astronomy with the Light and Spectroscopy Concept
Inventory (LSCI). Preliminary results show that although the LSCI has
a high index of reliability (Cronbach's alpha = 0.77), mean
post-instruction score for the entire population of examinees in the
multi-institutional study was only 38.8% (up from 23.9% prior to
instruction), with no group scoring higher than 52%.

The reality that that our students are performing below the 50% mark
after instruction on a test comprised of material that is central to
the introductory astronomy course, indicates that we as a community
need to purposefully examine our instructional practices and find a
way to improve the teaching and learning that goes on in our
classrooms.  More data is required to verify this result.  We need
your help to accomplish this.

We are looking for volunteers to administer this 26-question inventory
to your "Astronomy 101" (or equivalent)students this (shortly)
upcoming spring semester on the first day of class and again during
the last week of class. In order to look at pre-instructional
understanding (for comparison to post-instruction understanding), it
is imperative that the first survey be administered before any
instruction take place. There is more flexibility at the end of the
semester.

The survey takes approximately 15-20 minutes to administer. I will
provide all materials including scantron forms and pre-paid return
envelopes for your students' answer sheets.  If you would like more
information about this project, please read our recently published
article in the Astronomy Education Review:
http://aer.noao.edu/AERArticle.php?issue=8§ion=2&article=3

We are also presenting the results from fall testing at the American
Astronomical Society meeting in Washington D.C. on Monday January 9.
If you are attending the meeting, please stop by Poster 27.06.  I will
have materials with me that you can take home with you.  If you will
not be at the meeting, but would like to participate, please respond
to me at eweeks@... with your approximate course size, start date,
and mailing address, and I will mail materials to you directly.


Thank you very much for your time,
Erin (Weeks) Bardar
Ph.D. Candidate
Boston University

Thanks for the advice, all. Looks like gnuplot is the way to go.

Rob, the data are flux(x,y). The specific dataset is stellar velocities as
a function of ra, dec, i.e. v(ra,dec).

  					 Thanks,
  					   Jordan

--------------------------------------------------------
M. Jordan Raddick
Web Content Designer
Johns Hopkins University/Sloan Digital Sky Survey

Phone: (410) 516-8889
raddick@...
http://skyserver.sdss.org

On Thu, 5 Jan 2006, Robert A. Knop Jr. wrote:

> On Thu, Jan 05, 2006 at 09:36:33AM -0800, Jatila van der Veen - Davis wrote:
>>  IDL...I believe it's free, but it's not terribly friendly.
>
> It's not free in any sense of the word either.
>
> There are 3d routines built into PDL (which is free in all senses of the
> word), but it's no friendlier than IDL, *and* it's less documented.
>
> When you say 3d data, do you mean x vs. y vs. flux, i.e. flux(x,y), or
> do you mean flux(x,y,z)?
>
> -Rob
>
> --
> --Prof. Robert Knop
>  Department of Physics & Astronomy, Vanderbilt University
>  robert.a.knop@...
>
>
> <-- This listserv is for discussions related to teaching and learning in
astronomy; please contact Gina Brissenden at gbrissenden@... for more
information.  This group is sponsored by the NASA Center for Astronomy Education
(http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov). To have yourself removed from this list,
simply send email to:  astrolrner-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com  -- >
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>
>

Hi,

There's a book called "Touch the Universe: A NASA Braille Book of
Astronomy."  I haven't used it with students but I have had a look at
it.  It has braille text and also braille "pictures" to give students
a way to picture the shapes of objects, distance scales etc.

Catherine Garland

On Jan 13, 2006, at 5:31 PM, snupnhomer@... wrote:


> Hello
> I've been informed I have a visually impaired student taking my
> astronomy class on astronomy which mainly covers the planets.
> Are there any resources out there?
>
> Tina Fanetti
>
> <-- This listserv is for discussions related to teaching and
> learning in astronomy; please contact Gina Brissenden at
> gbrissenden@... for more information.  This group is
> sponsored by the NASA Center for Astronomy Education (http://
> astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov). To have yourself removed from this
> list, simply send email to:  astrolrner-
> unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com  -- >
>
>
> YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
>
>  Visit your group "astrolrner" on the web.
>
>  To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>  astrolrner-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>  Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
>
>
>

----- Original Message -----

From: snupnhomer@...

To: astrolrner@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Friday, January 13, 2006 5:31 PM

Subject: [astrolrner@CAE] Visually Impaired Student

Hello
I've been informed I have a visually impaired student taking my astronomy class on astronomy which mainly covers the planets.
Are there any resources out there?

Tina Fanetti

There are three Braille astronomy books: _Touch the Stars_, _Touch the Universe:
A NASA Braille Book of Astronony_, and _Touch the Sun: A NASA Braille Book_. All
are by Noreen Grice and they're remarkable. The first is published by National
Braille Press, the other two by Joseph Henry Press. They are sponsored by You
Can Do Astronomy LLC. Visit their website at www.youcandoastronomy.com.

[<>][<>][<>][<>][<>][<>][<>][<>][<>][<>][<>][<>][<>][<>][<>][<>][<>]
Rica Sirbaugh French           rfrench@...
Professor of Astronomy         http://www.miracosta.edu/home/rfrench
MiraCosta College
One Barnard Drive M/S 8C       OFC: 760.757.2121 x6506   OCN 4512
Oceanside, CA 92056 USA        FAX: 760.795.6804

"Everything is relative..."

________________________________

From: astrolrner@yahoogroups.com on behalf of snupnhomer@...
Sent: Sat 14-Jan-06 09:05
To: astrolrner@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [astrolrner@CAE] Visually Impaired Student


Thanks guys
I've been trying to find Touch the Stars without much luck.
Tina

-----Original Message-----
From: Catherine Garland <cagarland@...>
To: astrolrner@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Sat, 14 Jan 2006 08:21:24 -0500
Subject: Re: [astrolrner@CAE] Visually Impaired Student


Hi,

There's a book called "Touch the Universe: A NASA Braille Book of
Astronomy."  I haven't used it with students but I have had a look at
it.  It has braille text and also braille "pictures" to give students
a way to picture the shapes of objects, distance scales etc.

Catherine Garland

On Jan 13, 2006, at 5:31 PM, snupnhomer@... <mailto:snupnhomer%40aol.com> 
wrote:


> Hello
> I've been informed I have a visually impaired student taking my
> astronomy class on astronomy which mainly covers the planets.
> Are there any resources out there?
>
> Tina Fanetti
>
> <-- This listserv is for discussions related to teaching and
> learning in astronomy; please contact Gina Brissenden at
> gbrissenden@... <mailto:gbrissenden%40as.arizona.edu>  for more
information.  This group is
> sponsored by the NASA Center for Astronomy Education (http://
> astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov). To have yourself removed from this
> list, simply send email to:  astrolrner-
> unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <mailto:unsubscribe%40yahoogroups.com>   -- >
>
>
> YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
>
>  Visit your group "astrolrner" on the web.
>
>  To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>  astrolrner-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<mailto:astrolrner-unsubscribe%40yahoogroups.com>
>
>  Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
>
>
>




<-- This listserv is for discussions related to teaching and learning in
astronomy; please contact Gina Brissenden at gbrissenden@...
<mailto:gbrissenden%40as.arizona.edu>  for more
information.  This group is sponsored by the NASA Center for Astronomy Education
(http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov). To have yourself removed from this list,
simply send email to:  astrolrner-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<mailto:astrolrner-unsubscribe%40yahoogroups.com>   -- >
Yahoo! Groups Links









<-- This listserv is for discussions related to teaching and learning in
astronomy; please contact Gina Brissenden at gbrissenden@... for more
information.  This group is sponsored by the NASA Center for Astronomy Education
(http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov). To have yourself removed from this list,
simply send email to:  astrolrner-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com  -- >




SPONSORED LINKS
University of arizona phoenix
<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=University+of+arizona+phoenix&w1=University\
+of+arizona+phoenix&w2=Science+education&w3=University+of+arizona+online&w4=Astr\
onomy+gift&w5=Astronomy+magazine&w6=University+of+arizona&c=6&s=163&.sig=Xvccph0\
2Nm-cKkhZOSNOCw>   Science education
<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Science+education&w1=University+of+arizona+\
phoenix&w2=Science+education&w3=University+of+arizona+online&w4=Astronomy+gift&w\
5=Astronomy+magazine&w6=University+of+arizona&c=6&s=163&.sig=f3a9XWJERWHDlLuKl9Z\
1vg>   University of arizona online
<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=University+of+arizona+online&w1=University+\
of+arizona+phoenix&w2=Science+education&w3=University+of+arizona+online&w4=Astro\
nomy+gift&w5=Astronomy+magazine&w6=University+of+arizona&c=6&s=163&.sig=tPKj7eu6\
CJ47d2DOi9VojQ>
Astronomy gift
<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Astronomy+gift&w1=University+of+arizona+pho\
enix&w2=Science+education&w3=University+of+arizona+online&w4=Astronomy+gift&w5=A\
stronomy+magazine&w6=University+of+arizona&c=6&s=163&.sig=Co8Tz7L3HLChdhujl6S2Mw\
>   Astronomy magazine
<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=Astronomy+magazine&w1=University+of+arizona\
+phoenix&w2=Science+education&w3=University+of+arizona+online&w4=Astronomy+gift&\
w5=Astronomy+magazine&w6=University+of+arizona&c=6&s=163&.sig=5ZAMUHD-uG4Sbw1f1d\
2kAw>   University of arizona
<http://groups.yahoo.com/gads?t=ms&k=University+of+arizona&w1=University+of+ariz\
ona+phoenix&w2=Science+education&w3=University+of+arizona+online&w4=Astronomy+gi\
ft&w5=Astronomy+magazine&w6=University+of+arizona&c=6&s=163&.sig=QcIZJvI8eprbRJK\
lQ9FVqg>

________________________________

YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS



*  Visit your group "astrolrner <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/astrolrner> " on
the web.

*  To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
	  astrolrner-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
<mailto:astrolrner-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com?subject=Unsubscribe>

*  Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service
<http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/> .


________________________________

Hi
A number of years ago I was asking about this sort of thing at our school. We
have people who work on helping students with learning and physical challenges.
I was particularly concerned with maps, graphs etc. They said that they had a
machine kind of like the old thermofaxes where it would produce a "puff" copy. I
got the idea that it would be like a mild relief map, but made in a special kind
of paper.  It sounded llke the puffed images don't last forever and I didn't
need it at the time, so I didn't get a bunch of materials made. But this sounds
very flexible. Maybe your facility has something similar.
ciao karen castle, diablo valley college

-----Original Message-----
From: astrolrner@yahoogroups.com on behalf of Catherine Garland
Sent: Sat 1/14/2006 5:21 AM
To: astrolrner@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [astrolrner@CAE]    Visually Impaired Student

Hi,

There's a book called "Touch the Universe: A NASA Braille Book of
Astronomy."  I haven't used it with students but I have had a look at
it.  It has braille text and also braille "pictures" to give students
a way to picture the shapes of objects, distance scales etc.

Catherine Garland

On Jan 13, 2006, at 5:31 PM, snupnhomer@... wrote:


> Hello
> I've been informed I have a visually impaired student taking my
> astronomy class on astronomy which mainly covers the planets.
> Are there any resources out there?
>
> Tina Fanetti
>
> <-- This listserv is for discussions related to teaching and
> learning in astronomy; please contact Gina Brissenden at
> gbrissenden@... for more information.  This group is
> sponsored by the NASA Center for Astronomy Education (http://
> astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov). To have yourself removed from this
> list, simply send email to:  astrolrner-
> unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com  -- >
>
>
> YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
>
>  Visit your group "astrolrner" on the web.
>
>  To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
>  astrolrner-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>  Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.
>
>
>




<-- This listserv is for discussions related to teaching and learning in
astronomy; please contact Gina Brissenden at gbrissenden@... for more
information.  This group is sponsored by the NASA Center for Astronomy Education
(http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov). To have yourself removed from this list,
simply send email to:  astrolrner-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com  -- >
Yahoo! Groups Links

Hi

You may want to consider getting in touch with Bernhard Beck-
Winchatz at DePaul University. He was part of the team that
developed Touch the Universe. He is very knowledgeable about
resources available for visually-impaired college students.
His telephone is 773-325-4545; email is bbeckwin@....

Another person you may want to contact is Cass Runyon from
the College of Charleston (cass@...).

Best wishes,
Heather Bradbury
Education Coordinator
Space Telescope Science Institute



---- Original message ----
>Date: Fri, 13 Jan 2006 17:31:37 EST
>From: snupnhomer@...
>Subject: [astrolrner@CAE]    Visually Impaired Student
>To: astrolrner@yahoogroups.com
>
>   Hello
>   I've been informed I have a visually impaired
>   student taking my astronomy class on astronomy which
>   mainly covers the planets.
>   Are there any resources out there?
>
>   Tina Fanetti
>
>   <-- This listserv is for discussions related to
>   teaching and learning in astronomy; please contact
>   Gina Brissenden at gbrissenden@... for
>   more information.  This group is sponsored by the
>   NASA Center for Astronomy Education
>   (http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov). To have yourself
>   removed from this list, simply send email to:
>   astrolrner-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com  -- >
>
>     ------------------------------------------------
>
>   YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
>     *  Visit your group "astrolrner" on the web.
>
>     *  To unsubscribe from this group, send an email
>       to:
>        astrolrner-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
>
>     *  Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the
>       Yahoo! Terms of Service.
>
>     ------------------------------------------------

Hi, Tina,

I have given a talk to a group of teachers on possible resources to
teaching Astronomy. One of them is visually impaired and intends to teach
children who are visually impaired, too. Some very simple ideas were:

. Large umbrellas previously prepared with the stars and planets of
certain times of the year, hour, place. The relief is obtained by buttons
or plastic pin heads, etc., properly glued to the inner surface of the
umbrellas, according to sky maps in scale. This gives the sense of a
spherical sky, polar/rotation axis, nadir, etc., of how the sky seems to
rotate, and so on. You may change the planetsīlocations along the year and
discuss their movement, celestial mechanics, and so on.

. Associate sound to light, music to light spectra; wavelengths and
amplitude should help them understand what one observes with the various
telescopes. Light from incandescent bulbs at a safe distance and the
sunlight reaching the personīs skin will help with infrared and detectors.
Understanding planets may benefit from this resource.

. Large portions of (drugstore/first aid) cotton may convey the idea of
interstellar clouds - they may collapse under the handsīpressure, rotate
like play doh, and expand/explode like disrupting celestial objects.

. A more ellaborate approach is to prepare a (hopefully) non-shrinkable
cotton proto-planetary disk with the forming planets and other solid
bodies around a star (seeds, pinheads...) inserted and glued inside the
disk.

Hope this helps. Enjoy your challenge - it is very worthwhile!
Mariangela
----------------------------------------------------------
Mariangela de Oliveira-Abans           mabans@...
pesquisadora/staff astronomer

MCT/Laboratorio Nacional de Astrofisica
www.lna.br   tel. +55 35 3629-8100    FAX: +55 35 3623-2535

----- Original Message -----

From: snupnhomer@...

To: astrolrner@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2006 6:19 PM

Subject: [astrolrner@CAE] Re: [astrolrner@CAE]    Visually Impaired Student

Because the class is going to have an enrollment of around 200 students, I will more than likely be using powerpoint.  The text won't be a problem I think, what about illustrations from the book? What about when I have the class do Lecture-Tutorials?

Tina

If your student has some sight, could a monitor for your power point be set up for the student's use?  I had a student who found this helpful.

 

Judi James
Astronomy
Brazosport Planetarium
979-265-3376

----- Original Message -----

From: snupnhomer@...

To: astrolrner@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2006 6:19 PM

Subject: [astrolrner@CAE] Re: [astrolrner@CAE]    Visually Impaired Student

Because the class is going to have an enrollment of around 200 students, I will more than likely be using powerpoint.  The text won't be a problem I think, what about illustrations from the book? What about when I have the class do Lecture-Tutorials?

Tina

I believe the machine Karen Castle was talking about is called a thermal
expansion machine. Here's an article:
http://www.nfb.org/bm/bm03/bm0305/bm030507.htm

And yes, Bernhard Beck-Winchatz would be a great person to contact. In
the meantime, here is a link to a resource he is a key figure in
developing, it's the web site for the SEE Project:
http://analyzer.depaul.edu/SEE_Project/

Good luck! -GH


==================================
GEOFF HOLT
Planetarium Director
E-mail:  gholt@...
http://www.mmsd.org/planetarium/
Madison Metro. School Dist. Planetarium
201 S. Gammon Rd.
Madison, WI 53717-1499  USA
Phone: 608-663-6102
FAX: 608-442-2203

>>> <astrolrner@yahoogroups.com> 1/15/2006 1:44:09 PM >>>
Message: 1
    Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2006 14:14:39 -0800
    From: "Castle, Karen" <kcastle@...>
Subject: RE: Visually Impaired Student

Hi
A number of years ago I was asking about this sort of thing at our
school. We have people who work on helping students with learning and
physical challenges. I was particularly concerned with maps, graphs etc.
They said that they had a machine kind of like the old thermofaxes where
it would produce a "puff" copy. I got the idea that it would be like a
mild relief map, but made in a special kind of paper.  It sounded llke
the puffed images don't last forever and I didn't need it at the time,
so I didn't get a bunch of materials made. But this sounds very
flexible. Maybe your facility has something similar.
ciao karen castle, diablo valley college

Tina,

I had a legally blind student in one of my astronomy classes years ago.
Legally blind only means they have worse than 20/200 in the central acuity
of the better eye. Travel vision means that they can see well enough to
navigate most obstacles but that they lack depth perception and have
difficulties with curbs, stairs and other obstacles.

My student had some vision; she had to view slides up close to perceive
shapes. She also could not read the text and had to have someone transcribe
it to audio tapes for her. She had a note taker in class. What I learned
was that she was the best judge of what accommodations I needed to make for
her. Vision disabilities are very individual. She, thankfully, told me what
she needed and it turned out to be pretty simple in her case -- just going
through the slides (years ago) again with her after every lecture.

So while we have been trying to be helpful on this list, I think I would
interview the student and learn from him/her what accommodations he/she
needs. The disabilities office should then be in a position to provide some
help in terms of student helpers, note taking or whatever.

It seems like the disabilities office should be more helpful up front, but
in practice I find that even for clinical ADHD students, the office doesn't
do a good job of proactive solutions -- usually 5 minutes with the students
provides a better and more directive list of solutions.

Good luck!

Dave

Dave Bruning
Physics
University of Wisconsin-Parkside

Hello,

I am involved in developing a middle school astronomy unit, and there
is a desire to use software to enhance aspects of the classroom
activities dealing with the search for asteroids.

In a nutshell, we are looking for software that will let students
look up objects they find in an asteroid search project as a way to
identify them and to think about how astronomers who discover objects
first have to check that they haven't already been discovered.

The students will know the date and time of the observations and the
location on the sky.  They will then set the software accordingly and
use it to show the object they found, if it's in the data base.
So the software will need to include a database of asteroid ephemeris
(having comets like Hale-Bopp would be a plus as well).

The other functions of the software might be used for would be:
  *  observe daily motion of the sun and moon
  *  observe daily and orbital motion of the planets (as seen from
earth)
  *  observe how the phases of the moon changes as it moves closer to
and farther from the sun in the sky

One consideration is relative ease of use as these will be middle
school students, and there won't be a whole lot of time to learn an
elaborate package.  We have looked at a few, but I would appreciate
hearing about your favorite package.

thanks!
Julia Plummer
PhD Candidate, Astronomy & Education
University of Michigan

My advisor formerly worked with SpaceWatch (a Near Earth Asteroid Survey)
and gave me these suggestions for software.

Joe

----------------------------

Looking up known objects near a location can be done easily enough with:

http://scully.harvard.edu/~cgi/CheckMP

The other functions that they're looking for are probably best served by a
planetarium sw package.  There are a lot of free packages out there.  For the
stuff that they want to do I find StarCalc to be very easy to install and use:

http://www.m31.spb.ru/StarCalc/main.htm

It can do everything listed (and much more) for free.

Hope this helps,

Robert




>astrolrner@yahoogroups.com wrote on 01/19/2006 03:15:09 PM:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> I am involved in developing a middle school astronomy unit, and there
>> is a desire to use software to enhance aspects of the classroom
>> activities dealing with the search for asteroids.
>>
>> In a nutshell, we are looking for software that will let students
>> look up objects they find in an asteroid search project as a way to
>> identify them and to think about how astronomers who discover objects
>> first have to check that they haven't already been discovered.
>>
>> The students will know the date and time of the observations and the
>> location on the sky.  They will then set the software accordingly and
>> use it to show the object they found, if it's in the data base.
>> So the software will need to include a database of asteroid ephemeris
>> (having comets like Hale-Bopp would be a plus as well).
>>
>> The other functions of the software might be used for would be:
>>  *  observe daily motion of the sun and moon
>>  *  observe daily and orbital motion of the planets (as seen from
>> earth)
>>  *  observe how the phases of the moon changes as it moves closer to
>> and farther from the sun in the sky
>>
>> One consideration is relative ease of use as these will be middle
>> school students, and there won't be a whole lot of time to learn an
>> elaborate package.  We have looked at a few, but I would appreciate
>> hearing about your favorite package.
>>
>
>Have you looked at the CLEA stuff ?
>(http://www.gettysburg.edu/academics/physics/clea/CLEAhome.html)
>
>I'm interested in hearing about others as well......
>
>                                                Matt Ganis.
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------
>Matt Ganis                                                       Email:
>ganis@...
>Senior Technical Staff Member               Phone:  914-784-5759
>IBM URL:    http://webpage.pace.edu/mganis
>17 Skyline Drive
>Hawthorne, NY  10532

Many of you have asked about an advanced-level teaching workshop on ASTRO
101.  We've just received approval and confirmed dates to make this happen
so start planning on attending right now!  The first three days of the
workshop will focus on teaching strategies and the second two will focus on
preparing for and visiting the telescopes at the summit of Mauna Kea.  You
can choose to attend either one half or the entire workshop depending on
your interests.  Unfortunately, we do not have a program to support your
travel or lodging at the workshop, but you can earn graduate
credits as well as a certificate of completion.  Here is the initial
information:
********************
Advanced Teaching Strategies for Learner-Centered Astronomy Workshop and
Field-Trip to Mauna Kea - July 17-21, 2006 - a five day teaching excellence
workshop and behind the scenes field-trip to the observatories at the summit
of Mauna Kea on the Big Island of Hawaii conducted by Tim Slater, Ed
Prather, Kevin Lee, and Gil Yanow.  Registration information is available at
http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov/workshops.  If you need additional
information, contact caper@...
*****************
Designed for faculty with experience teaching astronomy, this five-day
interactive
teaching excellence workshop and field-trip focuses on dilemmas experienced
astronomy teachers face and helps to develop practical solutions for the
troubling issues in curriculum, instruction, and assessment.  In first three
days of this advanced teaching methods workshop, participants will develop a
strategy to critically evaluate and select teaching resources that will work
best with their students; practice interactive lectures that exploit
innovative instructional technologies; increase teaching efficiency using
online homework systems to give students rapid feedback and reduce the
grading load; develop a criteria for selecting the best student laboratory
exercises; explore how telescopes can be best used to provide students with
authentic observing experiences; and develop systematic grading and testing
strategies to measure student learning.  The overarching goal of the
workshop is for participants to construct a learner-centered syllabus
supported by meaningful assignments, tasks, and tests that dramatically
improve student attitudes and achievement.  The last two days of the course
focuses on preparing for and participating in a unique behind the scenes
field-trip to the observatories on the summit of Mauna Kea. Registration
information is available at
http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov/workshops








.

>I think the other thing I was looking for was tips with the Powerpoint
>slides.  It's a class of 200 and I'm not writing on an overhead or I'll
>get a migraine.
>
>Are there colors I should avoid and things like that....

In my limited experience, there usually isn't a color blindness issue. But
there is a contrast issue. Subtle color differences or textured backgrounds
can give problems. Stick with primary colors and don't be too creative with
colored text or Word Art effects. Also make things bigger than you think
you need to -- if you thought 18 pt type on the computer screen, try 24.
After the first lecture or two, the students can give you feedback on what
worked and what didn't. As you have found out, the disabilities office is
often little help because they deal with these students more
administratively than academically.

Dave