AER Editor Wins ASP’s 2007 Emmons Award for Excellence in College Astronomy

Most beginning college professors in the United States receive little if any help in the important task of learning how to teach well. Occasionally, a colleague or department chairman can provide some guidance, but in general most American college faculty are taught how to teach by the “sink or swim” method. There are many resources that can help the new professor swim, rather than sink, but in my case at least, I found out about them many years after I needed them the most. This paper will identify some of the literature, journals, and on-campus facilities that can help both new and experienced faculty members develop and hone teaching skills.The literature on teaching and learning is vast. Fortunately, the new teacher need not spend years becoming an expert on this literature; much of it is like the astronomical research literature in that it is full of jargon and it requires some expertise to distill useful, easily implementable ideas from it. Fortunately, there are a few (too few!) books that distill this vast literature into practical advice from it.

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Readability of college astronomy and physics texts III

The Physics Teacher ◽

10.1119/1.2341355 ◽

1983 ◽

Vol 21 (7) ◽

pp. 447-451 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Robert J. Dukes ◽

Katina Strauch

Keyword(s):

College Astronomy

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Using CCD’s in Introductory-Level College Astronomy Laboratories

International Astronomical Union Colloquium ◽

10.1017/s0252921100086589 ◽

1990 ◽

Vol 105 ◽

pp. 142-144

Author(s):

Thomas J. Balonek

Keyword(s):

Dark Current ◽

Software Package ◽

Multiple Access ◽

Ccd Camera ◽

Analysis Software ◽

Camera System ◽

Black And White ◽

Standard Data ◽

College Astronomy ◽

Cooled Ccd

Our university recently purchased a liquid-nitrogen-cooled CCD camera system (from Photometrics Ltd., Tucson, Arizona) which has been installed on our campus’ 40-cm multiple access (Cassegrain/Newtonian) telescope. Images are reduced online at the observatory using Photometrics’ microcomputer-based analysis software package, which includes operations for standard data acquisition and initial stages of data reduction — including corrections for bias, dark current, and flat fielding. Images are displayed on a 256-level-gray-scale black and white monitor. Additional post-processing can be done either on the CCD system’s computer at the observatory or on IBM-AT/PC’s located both at the observatory and in the laboratory.

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