Astronomy Masterclasses 2006 in Prešov,...
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Ivan Melo (University of Žilina) on behalf of František Franko (Prešov) and Alexander Dirner (Košice) Astronomy Masterclasses 2006 in Prešov, Slovakia [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Transcript of Astronomy Masterclasses 2006 in Prešov,...
Ivan Melo (University of Žilina)on behalf of
František Franko (Prešov) and Alexander Dirner (Košice)
Astronomy Masterclasses 2006 in Prešov, Slovakia
(824 respondents)
International Particle Physics Masterclasses (MC) is a successful event for high school students. MC has 3 key elements: lectures, execises with real data from CERN and videoconference, as seen below:
Motivation
We wanted to see if the success of MC format can be transferred from particle physics to other fields – in Prešov, Slovakia, we tried Masterclass in astronomy
Lectures (one via EVO videoconference) Exercises (included real hands-on data from NASA)
Projects (new element instead of videoconference)
The topic of 2006 Astronomy Masterclasses was “Asteroids, their trajectories and possible threat to Earth“
The usual particle physics MC format was slightly modified to:
Astronomy MC 2006 in Prešov, Slovakia
Žilina
Prešov
KošiceBanská BystricaTrenčín
Trnava
NitraBratislava
30 students from one Prešov high school (16-17 years old), all from 1 class
Lectures (Sep 22, 2006)
1 local lecture in Prešov,P. Rapavýon solar eclipses and collisions of comets and asteroids with planets
1 lecture via EVO, Š. Gajdoš, Observatory Modra, discovererof asteroid „Prešov“
Computer exercise (Sep 22, 2006)NASA site http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/orbits
lists the 1242 known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids.
Students worked in pairs, each pair studied 10 asteroids and found the most dangerous ones in terms of their size, velocity and the minimal distance they will get to Earth
Student Projects Competition (announced at the end of Masterclass day, defence Nov 24, 2006 – 2 months later)
2 categories of projects: science and arts 9 registered 6 handed in and defended (pictures show defence and winners)
Summary
Astronomy Masterclass (AM) was a test if the Particle Physics Masterclasses (MC) formatworks in a different field
30 students participated, all from one average class
Program included lectures and hands-on data from NASA
It did not include videoconference at the end of AM (there were no other participants to join with)
Instead, it included project competition on astronomy topics – 6 projects finished
AM was very well received by students (the number of finished projects is very nice),The organizers felt the same enthusiasm on the side of students as during MC
