Science Education
Many people think of astronomers as lab-coated, wild-haired scientists peering through a telescope jotting down notes. Likewise, when people think of astronomy they typically are thinking about optical astronomy, done with light that our eyes are able to detect. These common perceptions do not actually represent the reality of modern astronomy.

Today, most astronomers observe using telescopes equipped with electronic cameras that detect and record the light being received by the telescope from stars, nebulae and galaxies. The astronomer often only visits the observatory a few times a year and spends the rest of its time analyzing and making sense of the data. In many cases, even at the observatory the astronomers never actually see the telescope being used because the heat from their bodies would compromise the quality of the data by blurring the images!

In a similar way, the traditional optical astronomy has given way to detecting light from objects that our eyes do not perceive, including gamma rays, X-rays, ultraviolet, infrared and radio waves. Through combining all the information from these sources we gain a greater understanding of the processes shaping the universe, her stars and her galaxies. Radio astronomy, begun in the 1940s, is key to this quest for greater knowledge about the universe. The most common element in the universe is hydrogen, composing about 75% of the matter in the universe. In the Milky Way galaxy, hydrogen is contained in stars and in gas clouds called nebulae. The hydrogen gas in the nebulae emits radio waves. Telescopes which are sensitive to these radio waves can help us understand a part of the Galaxy that could not be studied in any other manner.

Just as astronomy has evolved to include new techniques, so science education has evolved. Students traditionally sat in a class given by the teacher, wrote down notes and then were given “problems” to work on as homework. Research into learning and learning styles has now shown that this is not the best approach to learning science for many students, if not most students. Science being based upon inquiry, experimentation and verification of ideas and concepts, is best taught in the manner it is conducted. Inquiry-based science education practices are now viewed as key to improved learning outcomes for students.

Access to Technology and the Smiley Radio Telescope
Astronomy is an excellent subject for teaching students physics, math, chemistry, engineering and critical thinking, in addition to astronomy it self. Astronomy, along with paleontology, is one of the most popular sciences with the public and exposure to astronomy provides the chance to motivate students to pursue careers in science and engineering. There are two key and equally important barriers to astronomy instruction. The first is that teachers very often have little or no exposure to astronomy during their academic careers, even if the teacher has pursued a science degree during undergraduate studies. The other barrier is access to adequate tools for teaching astronomy.

Telescopes and other equipment may be beyond the budget of already stretched school science programs. Even when such equipment is available, teachers most often have little training in how to use an optical telescope, and such training is difficult to get. Observations with optical telescopes must also be done at night, which can be problematic in rural schools with busing issues and urban areas where there may be safety concerns, not to mention disruption of student and teacher schedules.

Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute (PARI; (http://www.pari.edu) is a not-for-profit public foundation, located near Asheville, N.C. PARI is dedicated to creating educational opportunities for students through our education and research programs. A key program towards accomplishing these goals and addressing the two issues in astronomy education is the School of Galactic Radio Astronomy (SGRA) which uses the “Smiley” radio telescope (see Figure 1) to teach students about astronomy, physics, math and most importantly the nature of inquiry-based learning. The Smiley radio telescope is a 4.6 meter dish equipped with receivers for detecting radiation from astronomical objects, mainly hydrogen gas that lies between the stars in the Milky Way galaxy. Using this tool teachers can instruct students using a state of the art astronomical observatory.

Figure 1. The Smiley Radio Telescope

The program that allows this access is a Java-based program. The Smiley radio telescope is controlled over any Java-compatible web browser such as Firefox or Internet Explorer. The telescope may be pointed at an object and data collected while the student watches the telescope move via a web camera pointed at the telescope. A key advantage of this is that the radio waves may be collected from space during all types of weather – rain, clouds, snow – because the radio waves travel through these with little trouble. Even more important, the radio astronomy may be done in the daytime, because the scattering of sunlight which obscures stars during the day does not affect the signals from interstellar hydrogen. In fact, the Sun is a radio source and may be an interesting target for study with the telescope. The easy access to the telescope through a web browser and the ability to do radio astronomy during the day overcomes the technological obstacles to teaching astronomy in the classroom and provides realistic and exciting projects for students.

Operating the Telescope
During a workshop at PARI, teachers are given a user name and password which they can use to access the telescope over the web. The basic screens are the scheduling window, observing window and guest window. Teachers and students first use the scheduling window to select a date and time they want to observe, and then go to the control window (Figure 2) where they see a live web camera view of Smiley, a message window, a coordinate readout panel and an all-sky map of the sky as seen in radio waves. The guest window allows people to watch the activities being done by other observers.

The telescope may be moved easily using a hand paddle. Students, click on the radio sky map or select a source from a drop down menu and then press the “go” button. Smiley can then be used to map a source such as the Sun, or to obtain a radio spectrum of the source (Figure 3). The key is that the students using the telescope are observing the real sky rather than a simulation and are measuring real objects using the telescope.

The labs developed for Smiley first build basic skills with the telescope and then get more complex. Since the labs are self-contained, teachers may opt to just do beginning labs or skip to more complex activities depending upon their needs. Lab 1 begins by getting the students to verify that the radio waves are coming from objects in the Galaxy. Lab 2 builds on these skills by getting the students to observe several different kinds of radio sources, from radio galaxies to interstellar clouds and lets them compare the results from the different objects. Lab 3 introduces the Doppler effect and then leads students through a series of observations and measurements to obtain the speed of gas clouds in the Milky way. Lab 4 teaches students about topographic mapping and then has students create a radio map of the Sun to visualize the Sun as it would be seen in radio. With these basic labs completed, teachers may devise other activities and demonstrations. The completion of the labs teaches physics and math skills, group work and the process of scientific inquiry.

Teacher Training and the School of Galactic Radio Astronomy
The access to technology via the Smiley radio telescope alone does not complete the picture and solve the problem of teacher training. For the students to access the telescope and have rewarding experiences, teachers must be knowledgeable and able to guide student activities. To provide the needed training, the School of Galactic Radio Astronomy offers support for teachers to improve their knowledge base and take advantage of the opportunity offered by the Smiley radio telescope. The key element of this program is a teacher workshop (Figure 4) that gives teachers instruction in the basics of radio astronomy, training on how to use Smiley and hands-on sessions supervised by astronomers from PARI and Furman University. During the workshops teachers operate the telescope and use it to conduct the lab activities developed by PARI for Smiley. This helps give the teachers skills and confidence to return to their classroom and help their students conduct modern radio astronomy observations.

PARI will offer workshops to train teachers to use the Smiley radio telescope October 15, 2005 and March 19, 2006. These workshops are supported through grants from Progress Energy (October) and a Meggers Project Award administered through the

Figure 4. Dr. David Moffett (Furman University) instructs teachers during a SGRA workshop.

American Institute of Physics (March). As a result, the only cost to teachers is a $35 non-refundable registration fee. We hope to offer additional workshops as funding becomes available. Groups who are interested in using Smiley but cannot come to the scheduled workshops may contact us and help us seek funding for additional workshops.

More information on the SGRA and teacher workshops may be found at http://www.pari.edu/programs/K12Programs/smiley/. Questions may be directed to Mel Blake, Pisgah Astronomical Research Institute, phone:828-862-5554, fax:828-862-5877 or email:mblake@pari.edu. We are happy to answer any questions.