Curriculum for the Training of Astronomers: Comments

Extract

In this first international meeting on the teaching of astronomy, we should not only look at many specific techniques and approaches but also examine the overall process. In doing so, several general problems come to light and need to be commented upon:

1. 1. Introductory astronomy course lab exercises are often lacking in rigor, compared to labs in other physical sciences. Students are often asked to do simple, qualitative exercises like drawing the moon or constellations – projects that bear more resemblance to 19th-century astronomy than to the work of modern science. Lab programs should be modernized, taking advantage of modern telescopes and ancillary instrumentation.

2. 2. A survey taken of U.S. astronomy department chairs, in preparation for an American Astronomical Society roundtable discussion, revealed a wide spectrum of approaches to undergraduate astronomy instruction. The one single obvious result of the survey was the recognition of a need for an international survey, with the results distributed and discussed by the participants. The dispersion of programs may also suggest another need ....

3. 3. The astronomy instructional community lacks a central journal for the publication of pedagogical articles. The physicists have the American Journal of Physics and the Physics Teacher for advanced and lower-level articles, respectively. While astronomical articles appear in these from time to time (as well as in other publications), there is no single publication that educators can depend upon to contain important articles. While there is probably too little material available to form a new journal or newsletter, perhaps educational sections could be started in the Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Mercury, or Sky & Telescope.

4. 4. Astronomy students (majors) are often told to “get a physics (undergraduate) degree” in preparation for becoming an astronomer, yet strongly desire to take astronomy courses. This dual-program requirement results in either larger course loads (to include the astronomy), or the possibility of losing them to other disciplines. Students can perhaps be kept interested by involving them in astronomy research while they are learning their basic math and physics.