The Astronomy Village: investigating the Universe

Summary

Introduction

The Astronomy Village multimedia program is designed to emphasize the process of science as much as its content (Pompea and Blurton, 1995; Pompea, 1996). It was designed for 14 year-old students, but has been used at slightly younger age levels and for older students, including university students. The investigations are flexible enough to be used at this wide variety of levels.

In this CD-ROM-based multimedia program, student teams can pursue one often research investigations. In each investigation they are guided by a mentor, receive e-mail, hear a lecture in the Village auditorium, and make observations using ground or spacebased telescopes in a virtual observatory. The students also process data using the NIH Image image processing program. They keep a detailed logbook of their research activities and can run simulations on stellar evolution as well as manipulate 3-D astronomy visualization tools. At the end, they present their research results to their classmates and answer questions about their results at a press conference. The Astronomy Village builds upon previous work in the use of image processing for education (Pompea, 1994a), teaching techniques in astronomy (Pompea, 1994b) current research in astronomy (Pompea, 1995), and developments in optics education (Pompea and Nofziger, 1995; Pompea and Stepp, 1995; Pompea, 1996).

The Astronomy Village Process Model

The process model for the Astronomy Village program is that students become members of one of ten potential research teams that are pursuing front-line observational astronomy research.