Development of Active Learning Materials for Undergraduate Introductory Astronomy Students

Montana State University, Bozeman MT

Investigators

Abstract

Astronomy (11) This project is developing a series of innovative classroom instructional materials for a large enrolment, introductory science survey course for non-science and pre-service education majors. The final materials package, called Lecture-Tutorials, is a self-contained, classroom-ready product for use with collaborative student learning groups. The materials are designed specifically to be easily integrated into the conventional lecture course. As such, this product directly addresses the needs of busy researchers and heavily-loaded teaching faculty for effective, student-centered, classroom-ready materials that do not require a drastic course revision for implementation. The Lecture-Tutorials developed for this project are based upon educational research on student misconceptions, demonstrated effective instructional strategies, and extensive pilot and field-testing. The materials-development procedure serves as a national model for other science disciplines that provide similar large-enrollment introductory courses. The project investigators are primarily disseminating these materials through workshops at professional science meetings in addition to making print and Web versions readily available.