Ivan Melo (University of Žilina)

on behalf of

František Franko (Prešov) and Alexander Dirner (Košice)

  Astronomy Masterclasses 2006 in Prešov, Slovakia

melo@fyzika.uniza.sk, frantisek.franko@unipo.sk, alexander.dirner@upjs.sk

(824 respondents)

International Particle Physics Masterclasses (MC) is a successful event for high school students. MC has 3 key elements: lectures, execises with real data from CERN and videoconference, as seen below:

Motivation

We wanted to see if the success of MC format can be transferred from particle physics to other fields – in Prešov, Slovakia, we tried Masterclass in astronomy

Lectures (one via EVO videoconference) Exercises (included real hands-on data from NASA)

Projects (new element instead of videoconference)

The topic of 2006 Astronomy Masterclasses was “Asteroids, their trajectories and possible threat to Earth“

The usual particle physics MC format was slightly modified to:

Astronomy MC 2006 in Prešov, Slovakia

Žilina

Prešov

KošiceBanská BystricaTrenčín

Trnava

NitraBratislava

30 students from one Prešov high school (16-17 years old), all from 1 class

Lectures (Sep 22, 2006)

1 local lecture in Prešov,P. Rapavýon solar eclipses and collisions of comets and asteroids with planets

1 lecture via EVO, Š. Gajdoš, Observatory Modra, discovererof asteroid „Prešov“

Computer exercise (Sep 22, 2006)

NASA site http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/orbitslists the 1242 known Potentially Hazardous Asteroids.

Students worked in pairs, each pair studied 10 asteroids and found the most dangerous ones in terms of their size, velocity and the minimal distance they will get to Earth

Student Projects Competition (announced at the end of Masterclass day, defence Nov 24, 2006 – 2 months later)

2 categories of projects: science and arts 9 registered 6 handed in and defended (pictures show defence and winners)

Summary

Astronomy Masterclass (AM) was a test if the Particle Physics Masterclasses (MC) formatworks in a different field

30 students participated, all from one average class

Program included lectures and hands-on data from NASA

It did not include videoconference at the end of AM (there were no other participants to join with)

Instead, it included project competition on astronomy topics – 6 projects finished

AM was very well received by students (the number of finished projects is very nice),The organizers felt the same enthusiasm on the side of students as during MC