On February 14th Kevin Lee and Ed Prather will give a half day workshop on ranking tasks at the AAPT/APS (American Association of Physics Teachers / American Physical Society) joint meeting in Washington DC. For more details visit the AAPT Workshops page.

On January 3rd Kevin Lee, Ed Prather and Rica French will be giving a day long workshop on teaching astronomy with technology at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Washington DC.

Two events are coming up this week at UNL:

Ruckman Lecture:
Stars Above, Earth Below: Astronomy in the National Parks
by Dr. Tyler Nordgren (University of Redlands)
Friday, October 2, 7:30pm
City Union Auditorium
promotional flyer (pdf)

Astronomy Education Workshop
Saturday, October 3, 9:00am to 3:30pm
Avery 19, UNL City Campus
workshop agenda (pdf)

We are pleased to welcome Tyler Nordgren (University of Redlands) to present this year's Ruckman Lecture on the subject of astronomy and the national parks. The dark skies of the national parks provide an opportunity to truly appreciate the night sky, and the geological formations at the parks demonstrate processes that occur on other planets. The student observatory will be open to visitors after the talk.

Dr. Nordgren will also take part in the next day's Astronomy Education Workshop – workshop agenda (pdf). If you would like to attend this workshop, please RSVP by emailing sparry3@unl.edu or calling 472-9312.

When: Friday, September 25, 4-5pm
Where: Nebraska Union Auditorium

Ed Prather (University of Arizona) will be talking this Friday about active engagement strategies and how they can improve students' understanding beyond what is achieved by traditional instructional methods. From questioning in the classroom to small group collaborative activities, many forms of interactive teaching will be modeled and discussed.

Dr Prather is the executive director of the Center for Astronomy Education, which develops and conducts research on the effectiveness of learner-centered instructional materials and methods. Complete details can be found on the promotional flyer (pdf).

The 12th Astronomy Education Workshop will be held Saturday, October 3, 2009, 9:00am through 3:30pm. This is a joint meeting with the Nebraska chapter of the AAPT (the N-AAPT business meeting will occur at 3:30).

This workshop will feature Tyler Nordgren (University of Redlands), who will speak about everyday applications of astronomy, and Dale Stille (University of Iowa), who will give a presentation of astronomy related physics demos. Additional information can be found on the workshop homepage.

If you would like to attend this workshop, please RSVP by emailing sparry3@unl.edu or calling 472-9312.