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Astronomy Inspires in the Classroom and Beyond
The engagement of astronomers with education at both the K-12 and college levels is
considerable. Undergraduate astronomy course in colleges and universities serve 250,000 students
annually, representing about ten percent of all undergraduates nationwide. Among them are about fifteen
percent of future K-12 teachers, for whom introductory astronomy is often their only science course 11 .
Astronomy education itself is now recognized as an important area of research, and education
specialists (Ph.D. holding astronomers with additional education degrees and credentials) are being hired
in major research university departments as well as smaller teaching-oriented college physics and
astronomy departments. Their emphasis is on development and testing of new approaches to teaching
that break down conceptual barriers to understanding. As a result of this focus on learning, there has been
a steady increase in interactive teaching, which produces measurable learning gains over traditional
lecture course formats.
The emergence of astronomy education over the past decade has precipitated establishment of the
Astronomy Education Review, 12 which produces peer-reviewed articles on education research. In
addition, the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the American Astronomical Society (AAS) have
played increasing roles in bringing together education specialists and college teachers alike.
At the pre-college level, exposure to astronomy is largely through informal education and public
outreach. Ongoing activities across the country include K-12 educational programs in schools, public
astronomy evenings at colleges and universities, and activities coupled to NASA field centers and
mission-related science institutes, NSF observatory and technology centers, and public or privately
operated museums and planetariums. Efforts such as summer astronomy camps, afterschool science
activities, and community K-12 programs draw children into science at early ages. Public outreach
activities such as lecture evenings, open houses, and star parties held at universities, observatories,
science conferences⎯even the White House (see Figure 4-5)⎯communicate the latest research
developments and convey the excitement of the subject and the wonder of the night sky. The public reach
is impressive: in 2008, the 349 science centers and museums and 1401 planetariums in the U.S. served
60.3 million people through onsite and online visits. 13
Partnerships between professional research astronomers and professional educators at all levels
form an important bridge between the classroom-based and informal education and outreach components
of this effort. They can lead to particularly rewarding experiences by bringing first-hand knowledge of
astronomical discovery directly to children. 14 In addition to the goal of improving national science literacy
and proficiency in general, informal astronomy education and outreach activities may also be effective in
attracting more minorities and girls into the sciences or science policy, which could help achieve
demographic parity at more advanced career stages (Figure 4-7).
Astronomy Serves as a Gateway to New Technology
There is a long history over centuries and millennia of astronomy contributing to society, and to
the larger arena of science and technology. Modern examples include a technology company that began in
the 1960s developing experiments in X-ray astronomy for NASA and is now one of the world's leading
manufacturers of X-ray inspection systems for airports, military bases, and border authorities. Image
processing techniques developed by astronomers are widely used in medical imaging, arthroscopic
surgery, industrial applications, and even in tracking endangered animals. Scheduling software developed
11 AIP.
12 http://aer.aip.org.
13 2008 Source Book for the Association of Science and Technology Centers (ASTC).
14 For example, Project ASTRO, sponsored by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, has over 500 educatorastronomer
partnerships nationwide that reach over 20,000 students annually.
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