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Bringing computational thinking into the science classroom is more important than ever. Here we look at a series of web-based astronomy lab activities that use modern computing and data science paradigms to process authentic datasets that ask students to investigate underlying phenomena using inquiry and exploration. These activities work when students are learning face to face or when doing remote learning. Google CoLab means access to a high-quality Python programming environment that allows for collaboration between students while eliminating the daunting learning curve associated with setting up a programming environment. Modern data science techniques for analysis and visualization appear throughout the activities where appropriate.

AAPT WM 21

Web-based Astronomy Coding Labs

coding

remote teaching

astronomy

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Most of the exoplanets discovered by the&nbsp; Kepler &nbsp;mission were detected by the&nbsp; transit method , which gives the radius of the planet. Use of the&nbsp; radial velocity&nbsp; or&nbsp; Doppler-detection &nbsp; method &nbsp;gave us the mass for a number of these planets which allows their densities to be determined.&nbsp;&nbsp;Comparison of these densities to the densities of the planets considered to be of similar type based on radii in our own solar system shows that some exoplanets of similar size to low-density “ ice-giants ,” like Uranus or Neptune , have greater densities more like the smaller , rock-metal&nbsp; terrestrial &nbsp;or Earth-like planets of our solar system and that the reverse is true; that some smaller, more Earth-sized , exoplanets have lower-densities more similar to the larger ice and gas giants in our solar system.&nbsp;

Densities of Extra Solar Planets

An astronaut floating at rest in Skylab and a hurricane floating over a very smooth ocean are similar. The astronaut can suddenly rotate arms, but torso also moves and total angular momentum stays zero. The hurricane can begin spinning, but it also orbits in the opposite direction and total angular momentum stays zero. It is wrong to think that a hurricane has only spin angular momentum. It is also wrong to think that they are blown west by trade winds. They move west because the earth is a sphere and the Coriolis force is proportional to the sine of the lattitude angle. This, and Bernoulli's principle makes them also move poleward, again because the earth is a sphere. The existence and motion of hurricanes demonstrates that the earth spins and is spherical. Application of what we know about the formation and motion of hurricanes, applied&nbsp;to sunspots yields new insight.

Angular Momentum of Astronauts, Hurricanes, and Sunspots

Learn about 19 different physics activities embedded into an astronomy context developed by the Temple/AAPT team of the NASA Space Science Education Consortium. Many of these materials can be incorporated into an online learning environment. Activities cover topics as wide-reaching as spectroscopy and the likelihood of identifying life in outer space, periodic relationships and solar activity, electromagnetism and auroral currents, motion graphs and coronal mass ejections, and geometric optics and solar eclipses.

Physics in an Astronomy Context: Resources from the NASA SSEC

Filling an important niche in the discipline-based science education research domain, the Journal of Astronomy &amp; Earth Sciences Education JAESE is entering its 8 th year.&nbsp; Initially started to fill the gap left by the termination of the Astronomy Education Review j ournal, JAESE publishes education-based research studies across the broad field of Earth, &nbsp;space, and planetary sciences including the disciplines of astronomy, climate education, energy resource science, environmental science, geology, geography, agriculture, meteorology, planetary sciences, and oceanography education. JAESE uses a double, blind-peer review process to insure the scholarly quality of the astronomy education research studies published.&nbsp; Moreover, JAESE uses an open-access financial model where nominal open-access costs are charged to authors and institutions rather than annual memberships, large library subscriptions, or expensive “gold” open-access fees.

Evolution of the Journal of Astronomy & Earth Sciences Education

For the past few years, the fall semester algebra-based introductory physics labs have been teaching skills alongside content. We instruct students on how to create models and how to use those models to answer experimental questions. When a student is presented with an experimental question, they are given minimal assistance and must design their own experiment based on prior knowledge. For our lab on buoyancy, we introduce the topic in lab first before going into more detail in the lecture. The end goal is for students to discover that the buoyant force is equal to the weight of the water displaced. Students then analyze the results of their experiment and compare class data using a t-test, another learned skill.. We present this discovery lab to give others ideas for new labs that can be done in courses involving physics for the life sciences.

Discovering Buoyancy as an Open-ended Lab

The wave equation for electromagnetic waves, the Helmholtz equation, has the same form as the Schrodinger equation of quantum mechanics. We present the generation of optical beams in Mathieu modes, whose angular solution is the same as the wavefunction for the quantized pendulum. The light in such a mode is generated by a spatial light modulator and imaged by digital cameras. The intensity of the light in the far field is proportional to the probability of finding the pendulum bob as a function of angle. In this experiment students can investigate, quantization, wavefunction symmetry, probabilities and explore non-classical aspects of the quantum solutions. Superpositions can also produce wave-packets that resemble the classical motion. We also focus on states that approximate the harmonic oscillator.

An Advanced Lab on the Quantum Pendulum

My upper level Acoustics course was thrust into virtual mode. I designed a “do this at home” lab exercise which my students could perform with readily available equipment found at home. We did a quick study of the Helmholtz Resonator by using an empty 2 L soda bottle, a measuring cup, a ruler and a smartphone. By measuring the frequency with different amounts of water in the bottle, the students were able to extract a good value for the volume of the empty bottle from their graphical analysis of the data.&nbsp; (Many of them were surprised to discover that it is NOT 2.0 L.) As an assessment of their ability to extend the analysis, an exam question provided them with data for a small pendant-style ocarina, from which they were able to deduce the interior volume of the ocarina. Both the lab and the extension will be described.

A virtual Helmholtz Resonator lab

We conducted research on student difficulties used it as a guide to develop, validate and evaluate a quantum interactive learning tutorial (QuILT) on Larmor precession of spin to help students learn about time-dependence of expectation values in quantum mechanics. The QuILT builds on students' prior knowledge and strives to help them develop a good knowledge structure of relevant concepts. It adapts visualization tools to help students develop intuition about these topics and focuses on helping students integrate qualitative and quantitative understanding. Here, we summarize the development, validation and in-class evaluation. We thank the National Science Foundation for support.

Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorial on Larmor Precession of Spin

Just-in-Time Teaching (JiTT) is an instructional strategy involving feedback from students on pre-lecture activities in order to design in-class activities to build on the continuing feedback from students. We investigated the effectiveness of a JiTT approach, which included in-class concept tests using clickers in an upper-division quantum mechanics course. We analyzed student performance on pre-lecture reading quizzes, in-class clicker questions answered individually, and clicker questions answered after group discussion, and compared those performances with open-ended retention quizzes administered after all instructional activities on the same concepts. In general, compared to the reading quizzes, student performance improved when individual clicker questions were posed after lectures that focused on student difficulties found via electronic feedback. The performance on the clicker questions after group discussion following individual clicker question responses also showed improvement. We discuss some possible reasons for improved performance at various stages. We thank the National Science Foundation for support.

Just-in-Time Teaching and Peer Instruction Using Clickers in Quantum Mechanics

We describe the development, validation and in-class evaluation of a Quantum Interactive Learning Tutorial (QuILT) on quantum key distribution, a context which involves an exciting application of quantum mechanics. The protocol used in the QuILT uses single photons with non-orthogonal polarization states to generate a random shared key over a public channel for encrypting and decrypting information. The QuILT strives to help upper-level undergraduate students learn quantum mechanics using a simple two state system. It actively engages students in the learning process and helps them build links between the formalism and the conceptual aspects of quantum physics without compromising the technical content. The in-class evaluation suggests that the validated QuILT is helpful in improving students’ understanding of relevant concepts. We thank the National Science Foundation for support.

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Web-based Astronomy Coding Labs

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