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Astronomy Education Review / Volume 5 / Issue 2 / RESEARCH AND APPLICATIONS

2006, AER, 5 (2), 127, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/AER2006022

What’s Educational about Online Telescopes?: Evaluating 10 Years of MicroObservatory

Published 6 February 2007

Roy Gould, Mary Dussault, and Philip Sadler

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics

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The MicroObservatory network of five online telescopes has been used by middle and high school students, their teachers, and the public in all 50 states to carry out a wide variety of inquiry-driven projects. From an analysis of 475 student projects and other data, we report substantial gains in students’ conceptual understanding of what telescopes do, of core concepts in astronomy and physical science, of inquiry skills, and of how mathematics can be used to model nature. Our summary of lessons learned should be helpful to anyone involved in the quest to provide access to powerful scientific instruments over the Internet.

© 2007 Roy Gould. Copyright assigned to the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc.

KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

10-12 (or high school), 7-9 (or middle school), College non-majors, K-6 (or elementary), Public outreach, Web-based learning

PACS

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

1539-1515 (online)

Publisher

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef Roy Gould. Copyright assigned to the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy, Inc.

ARTICLE DATA

History
Received 12 December 2006
Published online 06 February 2007
Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/AER2006022

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  10. Sadler, P. M., Gould, R. R., Brecher, K., & Hoffman, B. 2000, “Astronomical Experiences Using Internet-Accessible Remote Instrumentation” in Innovations in Science and Mathematics Education, M. J. Jacobson and R. B. Kozma (Editors), Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum, 259.
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