The Ultimate High School (2000+) Astronomy Teachers Resource List

Larry Krumenaker, University of Georgia

Supplemental website to a presentation at the American Association of Physics Teachers meeting in Baltimore, MD, January 21, 2008.

A product of a dissertation done at the University of Georgia, Department of Mathematics and Science Education, Athens, GA 2008.

(c) Larry Krumenaker, 2008. Mail to lkrumena {at} uga.edu

What ways do you use to keep up with

     --the latest news in the science of astronomy?

#1 = NASA Websites
#2 = Magazines: Sky and Telescope (54%), Astronomy (48%).

Followed by Discover, Scientific American, Mercury, Night Sky (defunct) and Science News, and 9 others.

#3 = Books
#4 = Non-NASA Websites: 


	Also, Badastronomy.com, skymaps.com, astronomy.com, and 100’s of others (see at bottom of webpage).

#5 and lower: Newspapers, ,conferences, NASA Educational programs, workshops.
     --the field of astronomy education?


#1 = NASA Websites  and #2 = NASA Educational Programs

#3 = Conferences and #4 = Workshops
	Especially U. of Arizona’s CAPER group and the Center for Astronomy Education, and from Hands-On Universe and TLRBSE/ARBSE/RBSE.

#5 = Newsletters/magazines from associations. 
(Note that the largest number of respondents claim NSTA membership, followed by regional science associations, then AAPT).
     --other astronomy educators?


#1 = Workshops
#2 = Conferences
#3 = Just with individuals known.
#4 = Giving Workshops
#5 = NASA Educational Programs


Important Astronomy Associations
Astronomical Society of the Pacific
Planetarium Regionals
International Planetarian Society
Mentioned but very small: Association of Astronomy Education, American Astronomical Society

Other groups
International Dark Sky Association
AAVSO
Astronomical League and local astronomy clubs
AAAS, DAN (diving!), other educator groups for agriculture, marine science, local earth science, National Space Society, Planetary Society, a modeling physics group, local astronomy teacher groups.

What course book, or curriculum from commercial or other sources, do you use?
What access to planetariums/telescopes do you have?

Textbooks:

The textbook most used is Astronomy Today by Chaisson and McMillan, by nearly a quarter of all teachers. At least three editions are being used, 3rd through the current 5th.

The next four together add up to the number of Astronomy Today's being used.
Second most used is Michael Seeds' Foundations of Astronomy. When explicitly stated, all editions from 4th to (current) 9th (except edition 5) are in use.

Others are Comins & Kaufman's Discovering the Universe with editions 5, 6 and 7 (current) mentioned, and Arny's Explorations: An Introduction to Astronomy (3rd and the current 4th editions), Cosmic Perspective by Bennett et al, (at least one 3rd edition in use, current is 4th - 2007) and Astronomy, a Beginners Guide to the Universe by Chaisson and McMillan (4th edition mentioned, 5th out in 2007, not possible to know if it is being used at this time).

Everyone of these is a college text, with readabilities generally grades 14 and up, and rarely as low as grade 12. (Edition information and readability are all due to Bruning, 2007, and personal communication).

Despite complaints that all books are college level, 75% of all teachers use some book.

+ 28(!) other titles,

Trial testing of TERC's Investigating Astronomy
Several earth science texts are used as well, from Prentice Hall, Holt, Heath and Pearson, and one by Nanowitz and Spaulding, plus Holt's Spectrum Physical Science and Hewitt et al's Conceptual Physical Science.

Other titles named from 1 to 5 times (we leave the citation research to the reader for these and all the following titles) include: 

21st Century Astronomy (Hester et al.)
Astronomy - The Cosmic Journey (Hartman & Impey)
Astronomy, a self teaching Guide (Moche)
Astronomy, the Evolving Universe (Zeilik, 8th edition at least)
Astronomy: Journey to the Cosmic Frontier (Fix)
The Cosmos: Astronomy in the New Millennium (Pasachoff & Filippenko)
Discovering the Essential Universe (Comins)
Dynamic Astronomy (Dixon, 1984!)
The Essential Cosmic Perspective by Bennett et al (abridged version of the Cosmic Perspective textbook).
In Quest of the Universe (Kuhn and Koupellis)
Understanding the Universe (Seaborn, 1998)
Universe ([Freedman and] Kaufmann)
Universe (Snow and Brownsberger)
Universe Revealed (Impey and Hartman, 2000)
Voyages Through the Universe (Fraknoi, Morrison and Wolff)

plus 20 other supplemental works 

Apollo 13
Astronomy through Practical Investigations
Blind Watchers of the Sky (Kolb)
Cartoon Guide to Physics
Conceptual Astronomy 1 (Adkins)
Contact
Contemporary Activities in Astronomy: A Process Approach (Huff & Wilkerson)
Cosmos
Cosmos Reader (Sagan)
Elegant Universe (Greene)
Galileo's Daughter
Lecture Tutorials in Astronomy (Slater et al.)
Light This Candle
Mysteries of the Night Sky
Nightwatch (Dickenson)
On the Shoulders of Giants
Peer Instruction for Astronomy (Green)
Pocket Guide to the Sky (Oceana)
Study Guide and Notes for Astronomy (Pitman)
The Nearest Star (Pasachoff)

Curricular Materials:

Harvard’s Project Star. Also Hands-On Universe and ASP’s Universe at Your Fingertips.

Also mentioned, SETI’s Voyages Through Time, StarLab Materials, RBSE/TLRBSE, SPICA, Project Physics. 

Kinesthetic Astronomy (Morrow and Zeilik)
Golden Valley Radio Telescopes
Night Sky Networks
Tzec Maun remote observatories
Adler Planetarium's Quasar research modules
The Wright Center
Harvard's MicroObservatory

Planetariums:

Fixed Dome 10%, Portable Dome 3-4%, Planetarium Software (4% and growing). These include Starry Night, Voyager, Stellarium.

Telescopes:

65% of schools have an average of 3 portable telescopes, average size 8-inch.

A very small number have observatories, 5 mentioned having solar telescopes, and others use remote observatories

Below is a table of suggested listservs, websites, educational programs, magazines. It is a work in progress and weblinks will be added as we locate them.

Keeping up with Astronomy Pedagogy Educators
       
Lists      
       
AAE   X  
Arizona Earth science list   X  
ASSET (ASP) X X X
Astro alerts X    
Astro-Ed X X X
Astro-Learner X X X
Astronomy Magazine X    
ATM X    
CAPER     X
CCD Astro X    
Chandra X    
Clear Skies X    
Dome-L X X X
Earth Observatory   X  
ES Teaching X X X
ESPRIT X X X
Exploratorium   X X
Geoscience   X  
GLPA X   X
HOU X X X
Hubble X    
Imagen X    
IPS (IPS Yahoo) X X X
Kentucky ES Teachers     X
Local clubs X    
Lunar and Planetary Institute     X
Maine Math and Science Alliance X    
Malin space science   X  
MAPS-L     X
Michigan ESTA   X  
MMSA   X  
Museum Alliance     X
NASA X   X
NASA Ed X X  
NASA NEAT X    
NASA Science News X    
NASA Space Grant   X  
NESTA X X  
Night Sky Network   X  
NSTA X   X
NSTA ES X X X
Physics Modeling   X X
Physics Society   X X
Pine Mountain Observatory     X
PPA X    
SCT Users X    
SETI X X  
Small home Planetariums X    
Space Foundation Teaching Liaison   X X
Space weather     X
SpaceToday X X  
SPICA X    
SSA (Solar System Ambassadors) X X X
Telescope user groups X    
Televue X    
TLRBSE (and RBSE) X X X
Universe Today X    
UT (Texas) EXES     X
UWHS Astro Teachers X   X
VISM (image processing)     X
Wisconsin Science Network   X  
       
Magazines      
       
Abrams Calendar X    
Astronomy X X  
Astronomy Today X    
Astrophysical Journal X    
Backyard Astronomer X X  
Deep Sky X    
Discover X X  
Edutopia   X  
GLPA Newsletter   X  
Journal of College Science Teaching   X  
Journal of the ASP? X    
JRST   X  
Mercury X X  
National Geographic X    
Nature X    
New Scientist X X  
Night Sky X X  
Physics Teacher X X  
Planetary News X    
Planetary Report   X  
Popular Science X    
QUEST X X  
Reflector X    
Science Digest X    
Science News X X  
Science Teacher   X  
Scientific American X X  
SEED X    
Sky and Telescope X X  
Smithsonian X    
StarDate X X  
Virtual library   X  
       
More Websites      
       
AAAS.org X    
AAS.ORG   X  
AASTRA X    
ASP X    
Astronomy Education Review X    
Astronomy Picture of the Day X X  
Astronomy.com   X  
Astronomyteacher.com X    
Aurora page X    
Badastronomy.com X    
Bbso.njit.edu   X  
BCEA   X  
CAPER Team website X X  
Celestia X X  
Chandra X    
Cloudy Nights X    
Depaul.edu   X  
Discover X    
Dlese.org   X  
Enchantedlearning.com   X  
ES Picture of the Day X    
ESA X    
Estes.com (estes.org?) X X  
Fermilab X    
Google News X    
Great Western Observer X X  
Gsfc.nasa.gov   X  
Heavens-above.com X X  
HOU X X  
Hubblesite.org X    
Hyperphysics X    
Interactions.org X    
Investigating Astronomy X    
IPS X X  
Jackstargazer.com X X  
JPL X    
JSC X    
Lunar and Planetary Institute X    
Mcdonaldobservatory.org   X  
MSFC X    
NASA Lewis Center X    
NEA   X  
New Scientist X    
Newswise X    
Nineplanets.org X    
NOAA X    
NOAO X    
NSTA   X  
Physlink.com X    
Planetary Society X    
Refscience.com X    
Sciencedaily.com   X  
Sciweek.com X    
Sdss.org   X  
Skytonight.com X X  
SOHO X X  
Solar Soft events X    
Space Buzz X    
Space Today X    
Space.com X X  
Spaceflightnow.com X    
Spaceweather.com X    
Stardate.org X X  
Stargen X X  
Starrynight.com X    
TLRBSE X    
UCAR Windows to the Universe X X  
Universe Today X X  
Universe.com X    
Various Observatories X    
Various universities X    
WEA   X  
wikipedia   X  
Wright Center X    
Yahoo News X    
       
Programs
       
AAVSO Software X    
A-Phys abstracts X    
ASP X X X
Astro NM      
Astrometrica X    
CAE X   X
Celestia X    
CLEA X X  
Co Sci      
Earth and Sky X    
Earth Observatory X X  
GAVRT (radio Telescopes) X X X
Hands On Astrophysics X X X
HOU X X X
Investigating Astronomy X   X
IPT X X X
ISAC X    
JPL SSEP      
Kitt Peak Nat’l Observatory   X  
Local Clubs   X  
MicroObservatory X X X
Mt. Lemon Astro Camp      
NAAP X    
POPS X   X
Project Astro X    
Project Star X X X
Sky map      
SkyGlobe X    
Solar System Ambassadors X    
Space Explorers X X  
SPICA X   X
Spitzer X    
Stardate   X  
Starry Night X    
TERC X    
Themis EPO      
TLRBSE (and RBSE and A/TRBSE) X X X
University at Fuget sound? X    
UT (Texas) EXES   X  
VISM X X  
Voyager 2 X    
Western KY Univ P&A   X  

Notes:

1) This website is likely to be moved after May 2008 as the writer leaves the University of Georgia for parts unknown (i.e. a new job, not yet determined). 2) It will be under rather continuous development as the survey from which this was derived is further mined. -