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Astronomers Help High-School Students Explore the Universe

Some high-school students are getting a glimpse at professional stargazing, thanks to the Internet. The students are talking with astronomers, analyzing data from telescopes, and even publishing papers on line.

The project is the brainchild of Marino C. Alvarez, a professor of education at Tennessee State University. Dr. Alvarez says that many traditional high-school science courses rely on outdated textbooks and leave students bored and uninspired. So he's using the Internet to let students work with university professors to solve the same kinds of problems the professionals face.

"I think in our classrooms we don't give enough opportunity for kids to show what they can do," he says. "We should make school a place where kids will want to come instead of just a place they have to endure."

So far, the project has involved astronomy classes at the University School of Nashville and at the Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, in Alexandria, Va. Students are encouraged to communicate with professors at Tennessee State via e-mail, and they analyze data collected with telescopes controlled by the university's Center for Automated Space Science. The telescopes are located in Arizona, and are operated remotely over the Internet.

The students then publish their findings on the project's World-Wide Web site. Although the students' work lacks the polish of professional papers, they often explain complex processes in terms the average person can understand. In a paper entitled "What Is a Star?," Gustavo Rohde and Rahul Menon, of the University School, write:

"Just as humans change from a baby to a teen and then to an adult, a star has a similar life cycle. In the formation of a star the gravity of objects in space begins to attract them to each other. As they stick together, they become bigger and attract even more objects to themselves. Gradually, this sticking-together of objects will increase the pressure in the center of our not-yet-born star. As the pressure increases, the temperature in the center of our fetal star will also increase. After it reaches a certain mass (about 7% of the Sun), the core will satisfy the conditions necessary for fusion to occur. At this point, our star is born."

Dr. Alvarez says he's using the project to study ways to improve science education in secondary schools. He's encouraged by the students' reaction to the hands-on experience. "They're starting to look at their textbooks from a more critical angle," he says.

The project, which is called Explorers of the Universe, is sponsored by the university's Center of Excellence in Information Systems Engineering and Management.

Jeffrey R. Young
2/25/97

Copyright 1997, The Chronicle of Higher Education. Posted with permission on coe2.tsuniv.edu/explorers. This article may not be published, reposted, or redistributed without permission from The Chronicle.