ASTL101 Assessment Fall 2010
ASSESSMENT PLAN
An assessment plan has been developed and put in place to ensure that students
taking the Laboratory Component of Astronomy of the Solar System (ASTL101)
have achieved the educational objectives and the program outcomes for the GE
requirements. In addition, a partial assessment of the corresponding lecture
(AST101) was performed.
The course syllabus includes one primary General Education objective – NJCC 3a –
which states that
• Applying the scientific method, students will analyze a problem and draw
conclusions from data and evidence.
This is assessed via evaluated laboratories. In addition, the course syllabus contains
about 20 supporting objectives (see Appendix 1), which are used for design (rather
than assessment) of the content of the course. Analysis of how well the course
achieves its General Education objective, and developing suggestions for
improvement, are the primary goals of this assessment.
The objective data helps provide an understanding of how well we are achieving the
General Education goal, but does not help us to understand where or how to
improve. To answer this question, we have asked students to rate elements of the
course to see how well they achieved the primary General Education objective of the
last paragraph. In combination with the objective data from analysis of student
performance in labs, this additional subjective rating data provides a way to
determine what elements of the course (supporting objectives or specific labs) to
target for improvement.
The assessment consisted of the following seven parts:
1. Determination of the number of students who successfully completed sample
questions in each lab involving drawing conclusions from data and evidence
2. Student ranking of how closely they felt each lab met the GE objectives
3. Student ranking of how effective they felt each lab was in helping them learn
Astronomy
4. Capture of data on how students did labs (individually or in teams)
5. Obective questions on the lecture component of the course to see how well
students were grasping fundamental concepts
6. Student subjective evaluation of teaching techniques used in lecture and lab
7. Free-form student comments used to update specifics in courses
Data Acquisition Techniques:
Achievement of General Education objectives is measured by pertinent data from
their laboratory submissions and by using an online survey made available to
current students enrolled in Astronomy of the Solar System. The current student
ASTL101 Assessment
population enrolled includes 5 in-class sections offered in Cranford and Elizabeth
and 4 online sections.
This survey asks our students to evaluate each of the individual laboratory exercises
and includes a limited number of multiple-choice questions about material covered
in the lectures and laboratories. In addition we will correlate the students
understanding of concepts being tested in the laboratory exercises with the
students’ answers to a number of short essay questions given in a subset of the
laboratory exercises.
Time Scale
This survey will be conducted before the present term ends (12/2010). The survey
will be offered for the next 2 or 3 years to evaluate changes made to the course.
Action
We will evaluate what needs to be changed or updated in our laboratory offerings.
We will then use our survey over the next 2 or 3 years to evaluate the outcome of
our updated laboratory offerings.
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ASTL101 Assessment
SUMMARY OF MAJOR FINDINGS AND
CORRECTIVE ACTIONS
This section gives a summary of major findings, along with actions being taken to
address those findings. Specifics are detailed in the sections below.
1. In lab, the overall percent of students with correct answers is 63%, short of
our goal of 70%.
Corrective action: In Fall 2011, (the next major time AST101 is offered inclass), we will implement pre-tests for several labs, requiring students to
answer several questions on the lab’s concepts before the remainder of the
lab is made available to them. This will be trialed at first only for in-class labs
– if successful, it will be extended to web labs.
2. Students consider lab OP17 as not supporting GE objectives nor helping them
learn Astronomy.
Corrective action: OP17 was replaced by OP11 immediately after we received
feedback from several sections of students. The replacement, OP11, achieved
student rating scores consistent with other labs.
3. Students achieved an abysmally low score (29%) on a very fundamental
question – how many stars are there in the Solar System.
Corrective action 1: We felt that the problem was that student’s knew the
correct answer here, but just were trying to complete the questionnaire
quickly and weren’t fully reading the question. We tested this hypothesis by
re-asking the same question in class again on paper, but asking the students
to read the questions carefully. Results improved from the original 29% to
68.7 This is still short of our target of 70% .
Corrective action 2: This question is also asked in AST102 (Spring), so we‘ll
be taking action in Spring to see how to improve scores. Each instructor will
show a short video on the sizes of objects in the Universe at the beginning of
the last third of the course, reinforcing material already taught in the first
lesson, but perhaps forgotten. And we’ll add a note to the assessment
question to “read the question carefully”.
Reassessment in Spring 2011: This has been partially successful – in
reassessment the following semester, 70.4% of students answered this
correctly. While meeting our target, it is only a small increase from the
results obtained by corrective action a (above). To try to improve this
further, we have modified two sets of lecture notes to explicitly require a
video on the scales of the universe during the last third of each astronomy
lecture course.
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ASTL101 Assessment
DETAILED ASSESSMENT RESULTS
Part 1:
There are 12 to 20 questions in each of the 12 labs offered during the semester.
Students are given a goal to complete 10 labs. We chose 10 questions from 8 of the
12 labs. The answers to these questions are based on the observations and data
taken by the student. The questions and answers can be found in Appendix 2 at the
end of this document.
Laboratory Title
Question #
OP1 Starry Night Tutorial
OP3 Astronomical Coordinates
OP15 Kepler's Third Law
Mass of Earth
OP17 Parallax
OP17 Parallax
OP11 Solar Eclipses
OP11 Solar Eclipses
OP12 Phases of Venus
OP12 Phases of Venus
OP14 Mars and its Moons
Sky Charts
Average (not using OP17)
11
21
14
16
13
19
20
38
15
16
6
12
Number of
Students &
Teams
completing
lab
93
91
103
37*
55
55
14**
14**
101
101
91
120
% of
Students
with correct
answers
66
73
64
68
24
31
85
46
90
39
38
68
64
Table 1: Student Results.
 In-class students work in teams of 2 or 3 members, online students work
individually
 OP17 was replace with OP11
* Online only
** One section only as new lab
CONCLUSION
Our goal is to have 70% of the students answer each question correctly. From the
results in Table 1, the students only met this goal on 3 questions.
Lab 17, Parallax, had the lowest success rate, and was also reported by students as
ineffective both in meeting GE requirements and in teaching astronomy (see parts 2
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ASTL101 Assessment
and 3 below). It was immediately replaced by lab, OP11, Solar Eclipses, which had a
large improvement with the single class that completed this lab.
Four additional questions were close to our goal, having greater than 60% correct
answers. The results of one of the two questions on each of labs OP11 and OP12,
and the one question on OP14 are of concern. We plan to look into these seven
questions in more detail to understand how to improve our students’ performance
in these labs.
Part 2:
In this part, students were reminded of the contents of each lab, then asked how
well they felt the lab met the General Education objective being measured.
Appendix 3, questions 1-10 provide specific questions asked for each of the 10 labs.
A typical question follows the following format:
•
In Lab OP1, Starry Night Tutorial, you learned how to use features of Starry
Night, and then used the features of Starry Night on your own to determine
what continent was visible to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin when they
landed on the Moon. Do you feel that this lab met the objective of "Applying
the scientific method, students will analyze a problem and draw conclusions
from data and evidence"? If you did not do this lab, please leave your answer
blank.
The scale is
1 = strongly agree; 2 = agree, 3 = neutral, 4 = disagree, 5 = strongly disagree.
Results are as follows:
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ASTL101 Assessment
From the data, it is clear that lab OP17 was showing a significantly lower score than
other labs. Since not all class sections had completed OP17 at the time of the
evaluation, we replaced OP17 with lab OP11. Students who completed OP11 gave
OP11 a much more favorable rating, in line with the average ratings for other labs.
Part 3:
This was similar to part 2, except that it asked “how effective did you feel each lab
was in helping you learn astronomy? It includes all the labs for which conclusions
had to be drawn from data (as in part 2), as well as laboratories which help students
learn astronomy but do not provide objective data (e.g. observatory visits).
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ASTL101 Assessment
Again, OP17 is seen as weaker than other labs in helping students learn astronomy.
Its replacement, OP11, scored among the better OP labs.
Students were also asked to provide free-form comments on this part – only 5
comments were obtained, with one student claiming to not get any information out
of the parallax lab (OP17).
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ASTL101 Assessment
Part 4:
We captured additional data on how each student did the lab (individually or in a
team) in case we wish to do a subsequent analysis on the impact of teaming on lab
performance. We also contacted students who had withdrawn from the course or
stopped attending to see if they would provide reasons for discontinuing the course.
Unfortunately we had no responses.
Part 5:
We asked several objective questions on the lecture component of the course to see
how well students were grasping fundamental concepts.
Question
How many stars are there in our Solar
System
About how many moons are there in our
solar system?
It takes light 8 minutes to travel from the
Sun to the Earth. About how long (in
minutes) would it take a radio message
to travel from the Earth to Pluto (a radio
wave travels at the speed of light). Select
the best answer
If a planet in a solar system is made of
rock and metal, but has no planet-wide
magnetic field, you would assume that
% of Students with correct answers
29%
53%
36%
55%
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ASTL101 Assessment
These results are far lower than expected, and indicate either a lack of
understanding of the material, student’s being unprepared to answer analytic
questions during an informal assessment, or not understanding the specific wording
of the question.
For question 1, we asked students, “How many stars are there in the Solar System”,
for which the possible answers were a) none, b) one (the Sun, the correct answer),
c) hundreds, or d) billions, only 31 students out of 107 (29%) answered correctly,
with 72 students (67%) answering “billions”. Given the high number of students
answering “billions”, we thought that some students might not be taking note of the
words “in the Solar System”, and re-asked this question at the beginning of the
course final exam, about one week after the deadline for the online
assessment. Students in different exam sessions were given slightly different
instructions, explained in the following:
•
•
•
In group 1 (our control group) we re-asked the identical question, with no
special verbal instructions. During the original assessment, 3 out of 19
students (16%) in this group had answered correctly. On reassessment, 4
out of 19 (21%) answered correctly, an insignificant difference for this small
sample size.
In group 2, during reassessment we told the students to read the question
carefully. During the original assessment, 9 out of 26 students (35%) in this
group had answered correctly. On reassessment, 16 out of 26 (62%)
answered correctly. Just the admonition to read had a major effect on
student performance, boosting performing for this group of 26 students by
almost a factor of 2.
In group 3, during reassessment we changed the wording of the question to
“How many stars are there in the Solar System, not anywhere else”. During
the original assessment, 16 out of 53 students (30%) in this group had
answered correctly. On reassessment, 34 out of 53 (64%) answered
correctly, a very similar result to group 2.
The data above clearly shows that the way a question is worded (and consequently
interpreted) can result in major shifts in results. For the purposes of final results,
we are combining the reassessment scores for group 2 (16 out of 26), group 3 (34
out of 53), and students who took the reassessment with group 2 or 3 wording but
never took the original assessment (42 out of 55). That gives a total of 92 correct
responses out of 134, or 68.7% of all students.
Part 6:
Students were asked to evaluate teaching techniques used in lecture and in lab. Text
and scale of each question is shown in Appendix 3. Results are as follows:
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ASTL101 Assessment
For lecture, students indicated wanting to see more open book quizzes and fewer
closed book quizzes, an expected result. Results for labs were inconclusive and
imply that we have a suitable mix.
On question 23 – new labs, the only strong item was “learning to use a telescope”.
As a result of this assessment, we have purchased 10 portable electromechanical
telescopes and are developing a telescope lab, with planned availability for Fall
2011.
Part 7:
Free-form student comments were solicited. These are not used as part of the
formal assessment process, but are reviewed each semester prior to course
preparation to see if any specifics in courses should be changed.
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ASTL101 Assessment
APPENDIX 1
GENERAL EDUCATION AND SUPPORTING OBJECTIVES
The Course Objective pertaining to lab component of ASTL101:
♦ Applying the scientific method, students will obtain data in lab, and then
apply concepts learned in lecture and lab to solving problems posed in lab.
♦ Improve computer proficiency by utilizing PC planetarium software to
perform labs and identify/analyze objects in the sky.
GE Program Outcomes
Student Learning – Course
Assessment of
Outcomes
Outcomes
Specific objectives relating to scientific knowledge and reasoning:
3a. Applying the scientific
Applying the scientific method,
Evaluated
method, students will
students will obtain data in lab,
laboratories
analyze a problem and
and then apply concepts learned
draw conclusions
in lecture and lab to solving
from data and evidence.
problems posed in lab
ASSESSMENT CRITERIA FOR GENERAL EDUCATION OBJECTIVES UNDER SCIENCE
AND TECHNOLOGY FOR ASTRONOMY LABORATORY
GOAL: SUDENTS WILL USE SCIENTIFIC METHODS AND KNOWLEDGE WITH THEIR
OBSERVATIONS AND DATA OBTAIN FROM THE COURSE LABORATORIES TO
EXPLAIN AND VERIFY CURRENTS ASTRONOMY THEORIES AND HYPOTHOSIS.
Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the underlying physical
principles governing the Earth and the Solar System.
OTHER OBJECTIVES:
1) To develop a general understanding in using scientific method of applying
their observations and data to the verification of a theory or hypothesis.
2) Students will be able to demonstrate the taking of data and using this data to
make objective conclusions.
3) Students will formulate and evaluate possible solutions to problems, and
select the solutions that are consent with their data and understanding.
ADDITIONAL OBJECTIVES:
1) Students will comprehend and evaluate what they read and hear.
2) Students will state and evaluate the views and findings of others as part of
some of the assigned labs.
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ASTL101 Assessment
3) Students will write and speak clearly and effectively in standard American
English.
4) 4. Students will formulate and evaluate possible solutions to problems.
5) Students will recognize the weakness of some proposed hypotheses because
of the lack of sufficient observations, experiments and data.
PARTICULAR COURSE OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of this course the student should be able to:
1) Demonstrate knowledge of the components of the solar system, including
planets, dwarf planets, Sun, satellites, asteroids, meteors, comets
2) Identify solar system regions including the asteroid belt, Kuiper belt, and
Oort cloud
3) Understand basic physics concepts pertaining to solar system astronomy,
including scientific method, concepts of measurement, density, mass,
Newton’s laws, rotational motion, and heat transfer
4) Understand basic geology concepts pertaining to solar system astronomy,
including volcanism, plate tectonics, and the internal structure of the Earth
5) Understand the difference between discovery and scientific models.
Students will learn how scientists use experimental evidence to
confirm/falsify a theory. Students will be asked to evaluate conflicting
theories in in-class discussions based on available data. Discussion is held on
geocentric vs. heliocentric views of the solar system
6) Applying the scientific method, students will obtain data in lab, and then
apply concepts learned in lecture and lab to solving problems posed in lab.
7) Gain an expanded awareness of his/her rights and responsibilities as citizens
of a world community through discussion of topics such as global warming,
the popular misuse of words such as “theory” and their impact on public
understanding of scientific method
8) Put astronomic/physics discoveries into historical perspective
9) Understand how science affects society, from concepts such as the calendar
and Earth’s place in the Universe.
10)Demonstrate internet literacy by researching topics on the web and creating
a research paper in a topic in Astronomy
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ASTL101 Assessment
11)Improve computer proficiency by utilizing PC planetarium software to
perform labs and identify/analyze objects in the sky.
12)Learn through out-of-class experiences, including attending planetarium
shows, observatory visits, outside technical talks, and at-home sky
observation.
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ASTL101 Assessment
APPENDIX 2
LAB QUESTIONS USED FOR QUANTITATIVE MEASUREMENTS
The following are the set of questions and answers from ASTL101 Labs used for this
assessment:
Laboratory OP1
Question 11. Does the comet move relative to the stars or does it remain stationary?
(Moving relative to the stars means that, as time moves on, the comet slowly
changes its position against those stars.)
Answer: The comet moves relative to the stars.
OP3
Question 21. a) What is the altitude of the North Celestial Pole for an observer at
the North Pole of the Earth?
b) What is the declination of the North Celestial Pole?
c) Does your answer to part b depend upon your observing location on the Earth?
d) Why or why not?
Answer: a) 90° b) 90° c) No d) Since declination uses the celestial equator rather
than the horizon as reference plane, the declination of the North Celestial Pole does
NOT change when an observer changes location on the Earth.
OP10
Question 35: Notice that the horizon does not get in the way at any time during this
sequence. (That is, the Earth always remains in about the same position in the lunar
sky). Can you explain why?
Answer: The Moon’s rotational period is the same as its orbital period, and so the
Earth will remain in approximately the same position in the lunar sky throughout its
Orbit.
OP15
Question 14: From your answers to the above questions, is there any clear
synchronicity between the orbital periods of Io, Europa, and Ganymede? Explain
your answer (don't just answer yes or no).
Answer: The orbital periods of the satellites Io, Europa, and Ganymede are in the
ratio 1:2:4 if your data above was correct. If one or more of your measurements
were incorrect, I looked at this answer by hand to determine whether you should
have answered this yes or no.
Mass of Earth
Question 16: Would T (period of pendulum) be larger or smaller on the Moon?
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ASTL101 Assessment
Answer: The period of the pendulum is inversely proportional to the square root of
the acceleration due to gravity. The period is larger because the force of gravity on
the Moon is less than Earth.
OP11
Question 20: Is it possible for more than two eclipse seasons to occur in the
duration of a calendar year? (Hint: An eclipse year is shorter than a solar year.)
Yes or No and how?
Answer: Yes, if an eclipse season occurs in the first 19 days of the year, the next
eclipse season will occur about 173 days later in June, and the following eclipse
season will occur in December of the same calendar year.
Question 38: What type of eclipse occurs, as seen from this location, within the
darkest part of the Moon’s shadow?
□
Partial
□
Annular
□
Total
Answer: Annular
OP12
Question 15: Do your observations support the geocentric or the heliocentric
theory of the universe? Note I'm not looking here for which is the right theory, I'm
asking you which one is supported based on your results in previous questions.
a.
Geocentric Theory b.
Heliocentric Theory
Answer: The results support the heliocentric theory.
Question 16: Which specific observations support your answer to the previous
question?
Answer: As discussed in the introduction, Venus shows a full range of phases only in
the heliocentric theory. In the geocentric theory, Venus should always appear as a
crescent. Moreover, in the heliocentric theory, Venus should appear largest at
crescent phase, and smallest at full phase, as observed.
OP14
Question 6. Why does Phobos appear very faint or invisible when it emerges
beyond the planet’s limb, and what causes Deimos to appear to wink out at a certain
position just beyond the planet, on every one of their orbits?
Answer: These moons move into the shadow of Mars during part of their orbital
paths.
OP17
Question 11: Question 11: Assume that you are using equipment for measuring
parallax that can detect angular displacements as small as one-half of an arcsecond
(0.5”) and use the diameter of the Earth as 12,757 km.
a) What is the distance, in kilometer, to the farthest object for which you could
measure parallax shift?
b) What is this distance expressed in AU? [Hint: use eq. 3]
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ASTL101 Assessment
c) What is the farthest planet in the solar system for which you could measure
parallax, using this diameter of the Earth?
Answer: 11. A) 5.26 x 109 km, B) leave blank, C) Neptune
Question 20: What distance did you calculate from the parallax shift of: a) Europa,
b) Iapetus, c) Miranda, d) And Nereid?
Answer: 20. A) 5.602 AU, accept 5.5 to 5.7”; B) 9.067 AU, accept 9.0 to 9.2 AU; C)
20.94 AU, accept 20. to 21. AU; D) 30.75 AU, accept 30. to 31. AU
SkyCharts
Question 12. Look to the south to see Jupiter – it will be the brightest object in the
sky. If it is so bright, why isn’t it in your sky map? _______________
Answer: Jupiter is a planet and it “wonders” with respect to the stars.
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ASTL101 Assessment
APPENDIX 3
TEXT OF QUALITATIVE ASSESSMENT OFFERED TO STUDENTS
Objectives
Every few years, I do a complete course assessment to obtain student input which helps me
revise and update the course. Please note that you are being given one point extra credit for
completing this assessment. My expectation in return is that you will spend a reasonable
amount of time to provide thoughtful answers.
One of the stated objectives of ASTL101 is:
•
Applying the scientific method, students will analyze a problem and draw
conclusions from data and evidence.
We do this during lab, in which I ask you to take data, and then come to come to conclusions
from that data. For the following labs, please identify how well you feel each lab achieves this
objective. I have given you a brief reminder of what each lab is about, but if you have done the
lab and don't remember, please take a moment to look at the lab again to refresh your memory this is really important as your evaluations will affect the lab choices available to students for
the next several years. If you have not done some of the following labs, please leave those labs'
entries blank. (Note OP17 and OP11 are each only available in selected sections)
1. In Lab OP1, Starry Night Tutorial, you learned how to use features of Starry Night, and
then used the features of Starry Night on your own to determine what continent was
visible to Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin when they landed on the Moon. Do you feel that
this lab met the objective of "Applying the scientific method, students will analyze a
problem and draw conclusions from data and evidence"? If you did not do this lab, please
leave your answer blank.
Strongly
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
disagree
2. In Lab OP3, Astronomical Coordinate Systems, you learned the difference between
Horizontal Coordinates (azimuth and altitude) and Equatorial Coordinates (right
ascension and declination). Do you feel that this lab met the objective of "Applying the
scientific method, students will analyze a problem and draw conclusions from data and
evidence"?
Strongly
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
disagree
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ASTL101 Assessment
3. In Lab OP10, The Moon's Motions and Phases, you learned about the different phases of
the moon, and noted that the Moon's "horns" always point away from the Sun. Do you feel
that this lab met the objective of "Applying the scientific method, students will analyze a
problem and draw conclusions from data and evidence"?
Strongly
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
disagree
4. In Lab OP15, Kepler's Third Law, you measured the revolutionary period of each of
Jupiter's moons and the distance of each moon from Jupiter, calculated k = P2/a3. for each
moon, and compared values of k to see if the moons of Jupiter obey Kepler's law. Do you
feel that this lab met the objective of "Applying the scientific method, students will
analyze a problem and draw conclusions from data and evidence"? If you did not do this
lab, please leave your answer blank
Strongly
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
disagree
5. In the Mass of the Earth lab, you measured the length and period of a pendulum and
used those measurements to calculate the mass of the Earth. Additionally, the lab
discussed precision of numbers (how many decimal points you are entitled to) and
sources of error. Do you feel that this lab met the objective of "Applying the scientific
method, students will analyze a problem and draw conclusions from data and evidence"?
If you did not do this lab, please leave your answer blank.
Strongly
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
disagree
6. In the Skycharts lab, you learned how to use a skychart to locate objects in the sky. At
the end of that lab, you were asked to give your reasoning as to why Jupiter doesn't
appear in your skychart. Do you feel that this lab met the objective of "Applying the
scientific method, students will analyze a problem and draw conclusions from data and
evidence"? If you did not do this lab, please leave your answer blank.
Strongly
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
disagree
7. In Lab OP11, Solar Eclipses, you determined the conditions required for eclipses and
determined the frequency of eclipses. Do you feel that this lab met the objective of
"Applying the scientific method, students will analyze a problem and draw conclusions
from data and evidence"? If you did not do this lab, please leave your answer blank.
Strongly
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
disagree
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ASTL101 Assessment
8. In Lab OP17, Parallax, you used measures of parallax to determine the distance to the
Moon, Vesta, and several other solar system objects. Do you feel that this lab met the
objective of "Applying the scientific method, students will analyze a problem and draw
conclusions from data and evidence"? If you did not do this lab, please leave your answer
blank.
Strongly
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
disagree
9. In Lab OP12, Phases of Venus, you measured the size of Venus and its phases on several
different days, and used that to help you determine if Venus has heliocentric or
geocentric. Do you feel that this lab met the objective of "Applying the scientific method,
students will analyze a problem and draw conclusions from data and evidence"? If you did
not do this lab, please leave your answer blank.
Strongly
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
disagree
10. In Lab OP14, Mars and its Moons, you measured the rotation rate of Mars, the sizes of
the orbits and the rotational periods of its two moons, and determined how well they
matched Swift's predictions. Do you feel that this lab met the objective of "Applying the
scientific method, students will analyze a problem and draw conclusions from data and
evidence"? If you did not do this lab, please leave your answer blank.
Strongly
Strongly agree
Agree
Neutral
Disagree
disagree
Effectiveness
11. For the same set of labs, let me know how how effective you felt each lab was in
helping you learn astronomy. If you did not do the lab, please leave your answer blank.
Strongly
Strongly not
Effective
Neutral
Not effective
effective
effective
OP1 - Starry
Night Tutorial
OP3 Astronomical
Coordinate
Systems
OP10 Moon's
Motion and
Phases
OP15 -
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ASTL101 Assessment
Kepler's
Third Law
Mass of the
Earth
Skycharts
OP11 - Solar
Eclipses
OP17 Parallax
OP12 - Phases
of Venus
OP14 - Mars
and its Moons
12. For the following additional labs, let me know how how effective you felt each lab was
in helping you learn astronomy. If you did not do the lab, please leave your answer blank.
Strongly
Strongly not
Effective
Neutral
Not effective
effective
effective
Friday night
observatory
visits
In-class
(midweek)
observatory
visit
Planetarium
visit
Planetary
distances
walk
Internet lab
Video 1 America in
Space
Video 2 Solar System
13. Please enter any additional comments you would like to make about the effectiveness
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ASTL101 Assessment
of labs.
Questions about your overall lab program
14. How did you do your labs
A) Entirely on your own (i.e. on the web)
B) Entirely in-class
C) A mix of both
15. Did you complete the course?
A) Yes
B) No (I dropped out or stopped attending)
16. If you dropped out or stopped attending, please give a short reason as to why you left
the course. There are many possible reasons, so I left this as a fill-in field, but some
possible reasons include course was too difficult, course took too much time, my schedule
changed, I signed up for too many courses, I did poorly on an exam, family problems, ...
(whatever you might want to write). Your answer here might help me design the course
better to reach other students that might be considering dropping the course.
Metrics
Please answer the following questions as best as you can WITHOUT looking up answers in
your textbook. They will not count towards your grade, but will help me understanding how
effectively you all are learning.
17. How many stars are there in our
Solar System
A) None
B) One
C) Several hundred
D) Billions
18. About how many moons are there in our solar system?
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ASTL101 Assessment
A) None
B) One
C) More than one but less than 100
D) More than 100
19. It takes light 8 minutes to travel from the Sun to the Earth. About how long (in
minutes) would it take a radio message to travel from the Earth to Pluto (a radio wave
travels at the speed of light). Select the best answer
A) It would reach Pluto instantly
B) A few seconds
C) 8 minutes
D) 40 minutes
E) 300 minutes (5 hours)
F) 600 minutes or more (10 hours)
20. If a planet in a solar system is made of rock and metal, but has no planet-wide
magnetic field, you would assume that
A) the planet is a large Jovian planet
B) the planet is a small Jovian planet
C) the planet is a large terrestrial planet
D) the planet is a small terrestrial planet
Preferences
21. Please review each of the following techniques used in teaching lecture. Which would
you like to see more of or less of?
The current amount is
I would like more
I would like fewer
OK
Open book
quizzes
Closed book
quizzes
Exams
Discussions
22. Please review each of the types of lab opportunities offered. Which would you like to
see more or less of
Would like more
Just enough
Would like less
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ASTL101 Assessment
Observing
Projects labs
Site visits, such
as planetariums
or
observatories
at other
colleges
Observation:
using
telescopes at
Sperry and the
skycharts lab
Videos with
discussion
Model building
- e.g. the
planetary
distances walk
Research paper
or presentation
Experiments,
such as the
mass of the
earth lab
23. Which of the following types of additional activities do you think should be added to
the course (possibly replacing existing material):
•
•
•
•
•
Online discussions - These would replace a lab. Students would need to post two
substantive entries each week to a discussion forum, where an entry might
introduce a new topic (e.g. "why might there be life on Europa") or could be a
substantive respond to an existing post (e.g. "there's warm water - but why is it
warm" is fine, but just simply saying "I agree" isn't).
Videos with questionnaires. The questionnaire would replace the discussion held
at the end of a video
Learning to use a telescope - each team of 3 would be equipped with a small
telescope (can only be done at Sperry)
Homework - a homework assignment could be assigned each week from the
questions at the end of each Universe chapter
Lab pre-quizzes: A quiz could be given after reading the lab introductory material
but before starting the lab to help assure that students understand the concepts of
the lab before beginning to take measurements
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ASTL101 Assessment
Online
discussion
Videos with
questionnaires
Learning to
use a telescope
Strongly
favorable
Favorable
Neutral
Unfavorable
Strongly
unfavorable
Homework
Lab prequizzes
24.There is currently a limit of 6 observatory visits (normally 1 in-class observatory visit
and 5 Friday night visits to Sperry, but visits on other nights to other observatories are
also acceptable). The number 6 was chosen as a compromise between several competing
factors: wanting students to attend talks and view through telescopes at the observatory;
wanting to assure a reasonable distribution of lab points (e.g. not having observatory
visits replace too many other labs), and fairness to students who can never attend
evening observatory sessions. Do you thing the number of permissible observatory visits
should increase, stay the same, or be decreased.
Allow more
than 6 only if a
student has
Allow 2 or 3
Allow 4 or 5
Allow 6
Allow more than completed a
observatory
observatory
observatory
6 observatory full 10 labs (i.e.
visits (major
visits (minor
visits (no
visits (increase) the additional
reduction)
reduction)
change)
visits cannot be
used to replace
other work)
25. Please enter any additional comments you would like to make here about your
preferences for the course
APPENDIX 4
FREE FORM STUDENT COMMENTS
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ASTL101 Assessment
The way the course is broken apart it helps the students to understand the class better. Before I was in the
dark I didn't know anything about the universe but I had wondered about it. Now with the help of the course my
eyes are opened I can look up to the sky and point the location of jupiter polaris the seven sisters and so on.
When nasa has a report on space I will be able to understand it and explain it to someone else.
1. The skychart lab could be more effective if it can be done with professor's accompany. I went out to look at
the sky several times when the weather was permitted but I still confuse about what I saw. 2. The lab is quite
hard for those students who have no Physics and Math background. When we feel hard we lose interest on it.
3. Overall I like this class very much. It makes me to see our environment with a whole new aspect. There is no
meaning to fight how long we can live because compare to our universe life is too short. Am I right?
Even thought it was a lot work to do I really enjoyed this course. I have much better understanding about the
Solar System and the Universe and how important is to study the Universe.
I believe homework and online discussions would help students feel more involved into the course. I believe
they would delve deeper into the material and come out more knowledgable of astronomy. I think a more active
course would aide in helping students have a better grasp of the sometimes difficult material. I also think it
might be helpful if you held a lecture on astrology and astronomy. Even though it might not be accurate it might
help people in learning about the planets if they have something fun to reference their learning to.
I completely forgot about the online dicussions!! But thank you for your support!
I did find the course very interesting I just wish I did not miss as much labs as I did. But I know I could have
done it if I were more focused.
I don't like that students who don't work very hard for their grade get to make it up with all the extra credit. I
think the extra credit should help raise your grade by one or two points not by a whole grade level (but yes I
understand that sometimes the one or two points might move a grade level up but that's not the case I'm
making). In other words the students that are not putting effort into the curriculium should not be allowed to
earn a good grade just through extra credit.
I enjoyed my journey into space with Dr. Strom. The only thing that I did not like was the tricky questions on the
test...but I guess it helps the student study more to really understand the information.
I enjoyed the class very much. This maybe in part to the fact that I have a strong interest in astronomy and plan
on pursuing a degree related to the field. The text for the course has a vast wealth of information that I feel was
overlooked on the quizzes and exams. In other words they were a little too easy and did not test some of the
information from our text. More questions on the quizzes and exams with some being a little more challenging
is my suggestion for the future of the course. Overall awesome course with excellent and thought provoking
lectures that have me looking forward to AST102.
I felt the course highly effective as is"."
I found this class to be very informative. Dr. Strom did a wonderful job I just wish there were more hands on
experiments such as when we built a comet.
i had two different lab instructors and it was very hard at times with communitcation. Bouncing back anf forth
was hard for me sometimes. A lab might be cancelled at last min and i have already taken the bus to the school
to find that out.
i have no more additional comments according the course.
I like going to the planitariums. I just wish there were more shows available.
I LIKE THE COURSE BUT I HAD TROUBLE GOING TO ANY OF THE OBSERVATORY VISITS BECAUSE
OF MY WORK IF THERE WAS ANOTHER MEAN OF EXTRA CREDIT OTHER THAN THIS IT WOULD HAVE
BEEN GREAT.I ENJOYED THE COURSE AND THE AMOUNT OF INFORMATION I HAVE LEARNED.
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ASTL101 Assessment
i really enjoyed Astronomy and to everybody who ask me what course to take for their required lab i always say
take astronomy because is interesting and you learn a lot things that i did not know before i learned this
semester.It was a pleasure this class. Even if my grade is not that great i would say if there will be another
opportunity to learn more about astronomy i will take it.( i do not mean to retake this one.. jaj). As i said before it
is really interesting. I really enjoyed.
I really enjoyed taking Astronomy 101 online. I learned a lot!
I really enjoyed the course and have no major problems. I take a lot of online courses and this one was by far
run the best. Allowing flexibility for activities in person was helpful. I'm glad there wasn't any difficult math but
otherwise i think the course was appropriately challenging and shouldn't be any easier.
I really enjoyed the course. I feel that there is no need for change.
I really enjoyed this course. I also liked that i could do some labs on my own(i.e OP LABS)which helps because
of my schedule and some with the classes. The in class discussions really help to understand a concept better
and participating with others helped me learn new ideas and so on. So thank you for allowing your web
students to also partake in in-class assignments. Overall i think you have done a fantastic job outlining this
course!
I really loved my two astronomy courses and I did learn a lot the only thing that I would suggest for future
classes is maybe be able to observe more objects with the telescopes.
I strongly agree the course was very interesting. It highly open my interest in astronomy and labs gave a
knowledge of understanding better our solar system.
I think it might be helpful if the starry night lab software includes text-to-speech type of option that can talk to a
user; or it could have message show up on the screen letting the user knows s/he makes an error or s/he is off
track. for instance when a student is completing her or his labs assignments if s/he clicks a wrong button so the
software can tell her or him she makes a mistake and then the software could guide that student to the process
on how to get to the right button she needs to do or the labs/assignments. I firmly believe it would be a great
useful tool option.
I think it would be helpful if there were reviews or outlines for what is most important for the exams. I think it
would help students focus on the things that the professor feels are more important instead of focusing your
attention on something that might not be as important.
I think this class is great...I really enjoy being part of it and also love the professionalism and dedication of the
instructors....
I thoroughly enjoyed the class!
I very much enjoyed my teacher Professor Strom. He always knew what he was talking about such a smart
man and always took time out of class to answer my 230000 questions about whatever topic we were
discussing at that time! =]
I went into this course a bit hesitant. I thought this course was going to be boring and was not looking forward
to taking it. Once I sat in one some lectures i became very interested in the solar system and whats out there. It
was a very interesting class. I thought the lecture notes were incredibly helpful in understanding the material
and for studying for the exams and quizzes. Professor Strom is a very good teacher and it was a pleasure
being in his class.
i wish there were more lab nights other than just friday. It doesnt give me much extra-credit if i cant make it to
fridays. so people work so having different days other then just friday could help students who cannot make it.
It think it is important that the lab sheet given in the beginning of each class has questions and answers in the
same order as the online sheet where we put our answers. it has happened that few question for one of the
labs has different order and we lost few points. i think that this is important because the answer should be just
moved to Angel and we should not be paying as much attention as when we first do them.
its very adequate
none. overall I am satisfied with the way online course is presented.
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ASTL101 Assessment
Once again in addition to observatory visits for those not able to alaways get there NAT GEo programs should
be intertwined they give most of the same info and reinforce the information and also give distance students
flexability.
overall the course is effective and students learn a lot about our universe. Maybe professor can think another
way to give us extra credit. For instance I took astronomy 101 and 102 for extra credit I went to two different
planetariums but I saw similiar things on both planetariums so the second time I went wasn't that interesting.
Overall this course is an effective and pretty interesting one from the college's lab courses". I am glad that i
choose this course as my lab class. "
Please consider that some students have families and other responsibilities and can not make it to observatory
visits or trips to the planatarium.
Scheduling more than 1planetarium visit with class.
Thank you professor Armstrong and Gottlieb and Strom for teaching this class. I took the class online and you
were very helpful. You answer my questions very fast and you were alwaya very clear. I enjoyed the visit to the
planetarium and doing all the labs. I learned a lot about the starts and even how to use a telescope. It was a
very entertaining class but most importantly I learned a lot. Thank you.
The class was pretty fun. I loved the Starry Night program. I wasn't crazy about the Kepler's Third Law OP lab. I
found it rather hard. I like the idea of having to learn on a little telescope. I got to see out of the two big ones in
Sperry when I came to one of the Friday night observatory visits. I got to see Jupiter which was pretty cool and
how they move the telescopes. The handouts on each chapter I liked so if we found something interesting then
we wrote it down near the slide [since I'm not fast in writing it was nice not to copy everything down.] Planetary
distances walk and the Starry Night Tutorial was my favorites.
THe course was set up perfectly. I have class on Saturdays and a hectic (schedule fluxuates) works schedule.
It would be nice to have 2 options a week for the Sperry observatory visits. You can make it so that a student
can only attend one of them that week. So technically you'd still have 6 visits allowed. Friday nights was/are
very difficult for me to attend. Also the planetarium Sperry visits should have a set time frame as to when the
visit (talk) ends. Or at least a rough estimate to accomodate for scheduling purposes. Besides that the course
is very well drawn out with many different approaches to learning available. Great Class and great Course (i
took the course online).
The only think I would say again is that I would like more hands on similar to making the comet. It was a
tangible lesson which was engaging. I would also like more in class observatory or telescope experience which
could be an encouragement for students to try it themselves at home. The Galileo telescope taht you build is a
great example. I would use it at home if I had it and felt more comfortable using it.
The quizzes and exams are very confusing.
The room (furniture) could use a facelift! :)
This class was great and well taught. looking forward to the next session.
This is to the point I made above as well I find it difficult to attend evening observatory seesions.
Very well taught course. Excellent information about our galaxy and I learned a lot. Definitely reccommend this
course to somebody else.
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