Instructional Planning Yearly Update
Date ____05-16-14________
Department __Astronomy__________________
Division ___NAS_______________
Goals and Recommendations from Program Plan
List the top five Goals and Recommendations from the last Program Plan and indicate whether they have been met?
Goals / Recommendations from six-year plan In progress
Goal Met
Comments
(identify source
of funding)
1. Provide two Personal Observatory Dome
units to house permanent setups for
existing lab equipment - $8200
X
2. Buy 10 Laptop computers for room 705
for Astro 8A and 9ABC students ~$11,000
N/A
3. 3 hrs/week increase in LIA funding
FGSS Grant
X
4. Add a new course – Planetary Climate
Science. Proposed 3 unit course would be a
CSU/UC transfer 3 unit lecture course with
special emphasis on Earth climate
evolution and climate change
X
No funding
needed
X
5. Hire outside professional to service the
planetarium projector systems, to return it
to its original capabilities. $8,000
No
Successfully applied for FGSS grant in ’11 for first dome.
Instructor built foundation and dome installation continues.
Weatherizing has been very difficult, and putting expensive
equipment in to such a small dome, barely large enough for 1,
let along 2, has caused a re-thinking of how to better enable
the use of the enclosed scientific equipment (see new priorities
below). Camera, computer, mount, software all can be carried
to a new building. Existing POD perhaps usable for simpler
needs, or can be sold to help fund more suitable building.
Need has shifted. Nearly all students have their own laptops.
However, replacement existing laptop for use with 8” scope +
ST4000XCM camera will be needed..
New student assistant hired and funded, taking some pressure
off of Astro 8A LIA hourly need increase, however no
additional funding was granted so existing Supplies money is
currently being used. No assistance available in Astro 9ABC,
however, currently. This goal is being re-iterated in the revised
2013 update as funding for my new SA III.
Course successfully added to schedule, first offering Fall12
with 60 students enrolled, and enrollment for Spr13 and Fall
’13 at ~58 students, Spr ’14 progressing well. Added course to
Astronomy AS degree course list, and added Astro 7+8A
lec/lab combo to curriculum accomplished
Suitable for One-Time Equipment funding. Attempt to include
this in IE “one time money” list this past Fall ’13 not
successful.
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(Maintenance of program).
New Goals and Recommendations
Goal/Recommendation from last Update
List any new goals and recommendations identified by the department
Cost
Explanation/Evidence of Need, and Progress
$0
A concerted misinformation campaign funded by industry interests
Develop web resource site on climate change
makes it particularly difficult for students to get the straight peerfor Astro 7 course
reviewed science. Website has expanded greatly, and is an ongoing effort. Students need extensive instructor-assembled
material as no ideally suitable course texts yet exist.
$2500
Opportunity has arisen to work with UCSC Astronomy Dept. on
Purchase MacBook Pro + IDL Software for
confirmation and new discovery of planets around other stars using
developing, running software for new POD
the transit method. A number of existing students are eager to take
Observatory telescope/CCD camera science
Astro 8A to make use of this opportunity. Dovetailing with
project set
professional astronomers, and properly train future astronomers,
requires using their hardware and software development platform.
This computer and software was funded by ’12 Student Senate
grant and Macbook and IDL software are now in possession.
However, the small POD (Personal Observatory Dome) has not
proved adequate, for several reasons. Implementing the full
potential of the equipment and other projects for student learning,
retention requires expansion of the Observatory Dome building.
New Goals and Recommendations with this
Update – Goal/Recommendation
Cost
Explanation/Evidence of Need
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Build new 350 sqft building with dome,
very similar to the existing Observatory
Dome building, with connecting doorway,
or better, as an extension on the south side
of the existing dome, to house existing
telescope, QIY900 CCD camera, IDL
software/MacBook computer for general
photometry projects, and transit studies in
collaboration with UCSC astronomers in
particular.
~$20,000 if use
made of CEM
students for
construction, as
was done for the
other two (very
successful)
Observatory
buildings
Retention in Astro 8A and 9ABC needs improvement, and the lab
science environment for Astronomy – Cabrillo Observatory –
needs updating. Too many of the labs still emphasize hand
operation of amateur telescopes, and under cold conditions and
requiring awkward neck-bending positions to try to find dim
objects among a disorienting array of stars. Very frustrating, and
contributing to too much attrition. This is also not how
professional astronomers work. On the other hand, the dome
observatory building has been a great success and is a magnet for
students, even though only a ~1/3 at most at a time can be in it and
learn from it and use it and the rest must be shoo’d back outside
into the cold (the canyon location of the observatory is typically
5F colder than the rest of the campus, due to sinking cool air
channeled into the canyon at night) to work on eye/pencil/paper
labs at manual optics. We have a set of equipment for doing
transit photometry – the POD project – but it has not been
successfully put into use for several reasons – the POD is too
small, and despite many attempts by the (sole) instructor, it is not
able to be adequately weather-proofed. It is also tiny and suitable
for only one student. At the time of its proposal a few years ago, it
was all that seemed reasonably possible to afford. Now that the
success of the main Observatory building (constructed in ’07) and
computer-operated telescope is quite clear, students wonder why
we don’t build an adjacent similar building to house the telescope
and CCD camera and computer mainly intended for exoplanet
transit in collaboration with UCSC astronomers. It would provide
a larger teaching environment which is professional (and
comfortable), and allow all students in the classes Astro 8A and
9ABC to be in a collaborative setting rather than isolated to some
extent as currently.
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Fund a permanent student assistant SA III
for 3 hrs / week for use in Astro 8A and
Astro 9A/B/C
$1222
Astro 8A usually begins fully enrolled with 29 students. However,
retention is not as high as it should be. The “round robin” way in
which students must undertake lab projects, and at different
venues, means that it is very difficult for my LIA and I to keep all
students moving forward. My LIA is good at helping students
with the visual projects using binoculars and simple telescopes.
His understanding of the night sky and locating deep sky objects
is rare, and excellent. However, the photometry projects and
astrophoto projects each require more technical knowledge and
equipment skill which my current SA III is good at providing.
This help is needed in addition to the separate LIA help for other
students simultaneously. I generally handle the operational help
with the domed 12” telescope for astrophotography projects.
Also, Astro 9ABC has had an increasing fraction of novice
students in recent years requiring more hands-on help with their
cameras and telescopes - more than I can provide alone, as my last
instructor noted. Generally in Astro 9ABC there are two main
venues – inside the dome using the big scope, and outside using
the smaller portable telescope and the tripod-mounted DSLR
camera(s), and this separation of the venues is also a problem for
the instructor alone to handle. Unfortunately, my LIA is not
available for more than 3 hrs/week , and he already helps in Astro
8A both semesters. My new student assistant SA III has mastered
our equipment, having earned “A” grades in Astro 9A,B, and C,
and wants to continue as SA III in Astronomy .
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Purchase 10 Canon DSLR cameras with
standard kit lenses, to supplement the
existing single Nikon D7000 DSLR at the
Observatory
~$4,000
Astro 9ABC students increasingly are enrolling with no personal
photography equipment, nor any experience in photography. This
is an ongoing trend. Unfortunately, this has required students to
wait for available equipment to take their photos, and since
Astrophotographs (vs. many daylight photographs) require much
time to execute even a single shot. Frustrated students tend to
leave the course, causing a problem with retention. More and
more students who DO have camera gear have simply an iPhone
(which takes great daylight photos, but useless for the night sky).
CMOS chips used in conventiona DSLR have gotten very much
quieter in terms of noise, and usable ISO setting, so that they can
now take quite good night sky images at an affordable price. The
Canon 550’s are a good choice, with extended red range suitable
for imaging hydrogen alpha emission nebulae along the Milky
Way Galaxy.
DSLR’s can directly take wide field images at high ISO and .jpg
compression which means less time per photograph, suitable for
less waiting and frustration. Memory chips are inexpensive and
can be purchased by the students so they make take their photos
home each evening immediately, something difficult to do with the
more astronomically sophisticated CCD cameras on the Dome
telescopes. A mix of both DSLR’s and the 3 CCD cameras would
provide both the experience and the opportunity for maximum
learning and student retention both.
SLO Assessment Progress: In a sentence or two, describe where your department should be on the Revolving Wheel of Assessment (what
assessment you should have done in the last year) and what was actually done. If not every thing was completed, explain why.
Assessed Astro 3 in Fall ’11.
Assessed all SLO’s for Astro 4, Astro 8A, and Astro 27 in Spr ’12.
Assessed core competency “Global Awareness” for Fall ’12 for all courses.
Assessed Astro 7, 9ABC all SLO’s in June ‘13
Assessed Astro all courses for “core 4” in June ’13 and addenda in Fall ’13 to existing forms.
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Timeline:
Program Plan due next year. “Core 4” assessment for all courses this year, on schedule in the Revolving Wheel for Astronomy.
Fill out the Assessment Results section below.
SLO Assessment Results: List SLO assessments, dialogues, and priorities identified as a result of your assessment below. Attach
Departmental Assessment Analysis Forms completed in the last two semesters.
Core Competency, Course
SLO, or CTE Program SLO
Assessed. Example: all course
SLOs for English 1A, 1B and 2
All SLO’s for Astro 7, 9ABC
Date of meeting where
analysis / dialogue took
place. Example: Department
Meeting 8/27/10
June 13, 2013
Core Competency 4, for all
courses
Dec 1, 2013
Priorities identified for program as a result of assessment. Example:
Develop strategies for teaching research and documentation skills; share
rubrics for research papers; provide more instructional support outside of
class.
Astro 7:
*Add “red pages” to each PowerPoint, key ideas to be found on exams
* Add “purple” background to highlight optional non-exam’d material in
PowerPoints
* Improve study guide material to better describe tested material from
PowerPoints.
* Add additional material on tactics and examples of climate denialism
Astro 9ABC
* Plan, identify funding for, adjacent/(extension?) observatory dome
building for 2nd modern telescope system and work-space for computer
work, to better integrate students in one environment more conducive to
doing astronomy lab exercises more relevant to modern techniques.
* Get funding for ~10 Canon 550 DSLR’s, to address retention issue related
to the growing number of students with no camera equipment of their own.
* Design new PowerPoint on basic photography concepts and ideas
Astro 8A, 9ABC
* Plan, identify funding for, adjacent/(extension?) observatory dome
building for 2nd modern telescope system and work-space for computer
work, to better integrate students in one environment more conducive to
doing astronomy lab exercises more relevant to modern techniques.
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Astro 7
* Add to “strategies” segment of PowerPoints addressing current climate
change
* Update material on climate denialism, which is rapidly changing, and
critical for helping students evaluate what they hear on the news
* Review and add to website and powerpoints reference material significant
video materials on current climate change. Shift lecture time slightly more
towards making use of quality video materials.
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