Heather R. Theijsmeijer
CASCA Education Coordinator
Email: cascaed@astro.utoronto.ca

The World Wide Web is an ever-changing, ever-evolving entity – anyone who has a website and has occasionally gone through to check for dead links has realized how quickly websites appear and disappear.

Similarly, over the past few years new websites have appeared, dedicated to astronomy education and public outreach. Below, you’ll find sites you may not have seen before, with a link and a brief description. If you’re looking for new ideas for the classroom, be sure to check these out!

JPL Centre for Astronomy Education
http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov/

NASA’s JPL is known for having quality websites that are well-laid out, easy to explore and make good websites for webquests (see also their PlanetQuest website http://planetquest.jpl.nasa.gov/ and their Mars Exploration website http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/ ).

Earlier this year, JPL created a new website dedicated to the professional development of introductory astronomy instructors. This collaboration between the Conceptual Astronomy and Physics Education Research (CAPER) Team at the University of Arizona and NASA’s Navigator Public Engagement program highlights features such as ideas for the classroom, teaching workshops and teaching strategies. There is also an “Ideas from the Classroom” forum where instructors can contribute their own ideas and strategies for teaching in a college/university setting.

Astronomycenter.org
http://www.astronomycenter.org/

AstronomyCenter.org is a web-based database for faculty and instructors of undergraduate introductory astronomy courses. Provided by the American Astronomical Society, in collaboration with the National Science Foundation and the American Physical Society Campaign for Physics, the site includes a searchable directory, in which you can find documents on approaches to astronomy education, classroom demonstrations, curriculum materials, images, online resources and evaluation.

This is an extensive site, and is continually being updated. Active user participation is encouraged, while anyone can browse the site, registration is required to contribute to the database (which is highly encouraged).

Paul Robinson’s Teaching Astronomy Blog http://teachingastronomy.blogspot.com/

Paul Robinson, a community college instructor who specializes in introductory astronomy, has created a blog called “Teaching Astronomy.” Here, he lists a number of resources for Astronomy and Physics education journals, newsletters and magazines, professional organizations and teaching resources.

The blog itself is updated several times a month with resources, notifications about ongoing work in astronomy education and references to up-to-date education articles. This blog was just started in November, so it is still in its infancy, but it promises to be an extensive resource as more information is added.

Association for Astronomy Education (AAE)
http://www.astroed.org/

The Association for Astronomy Education is an associated group of the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) in the United States. Also a member organization of the Coalition for the Public Understanding of Science, one of their primary goals it to move astronomy education away from fact-based knowledge, and rather toward inquiry-driven learning and understanding.

Features on the website include Astronomy diagnostic tests, links to NSTA conferences – which provide links to the authors of various astronomy activities presented at these conferences, some resources and a listserve for astronomy communicators at any level to exchange ideas.

Finally, here some not-so-new sites, but certainly worth checking out if you are re-thinking your classroom practices!

• Demos and Animations for Teaching Astronomy – DATA
http://www.astro.uiuc.edu/projects/data/

• ASP – Websites for Instructors of Introductory Astronomy Courses
http://www.astrosociety.org/education/resources/educsites.html

• Image Processing Resources for Astronomy Teachers
http://www.phy.duke.edu/~kolena/imagepro.html

CASCA education Webteam (2008)