Upcoming Center for Astronomy Education Teaching Excellence Workshops Announced

The Center for Astronomy Education announces a series of educator workshops for astronomy educators. Advanced workshops are available for participants who have taken part in previous CAE workshops.

The Teaching Excellence Workshops focus on learning how to create productive learner-centered teaching environments for college-level introductory astronomy classes. Participants will achieve this through reviewing research on the nature of teaching and learning; setting course goals and objectives; and using interactive lectures, peer instruction, engaging demonstrations, collaborative groups, lecture-tutorials, ranking tasks, and online homework systems. These workshops culminate with participants learning how to implement these teaching strategies into effective learning sequences for the learner-centered classroom.

One-day Regional Teaching Exchanges are also available. The Regional Exchanges bring past workshop participants, as well as those local to a particular region who were not able to participate in a past workshop, the opportunity to network with their local community of instructors.

Jan. 6-7, 2008 — Austin, Texas
Improving the College Introductory Astronomy Survey Course for Non-Science Majors Through Active Learning: A Tier I (Introductory) Workshop

Mar. 1-2, 2008 — Orange, Calif.
Advanced Strategies for Creating a Learner-Centered Introductory College Astronomy Course: A Tier II (Advanced) Workshop

Mar. 14-15, 2008 — Berkeley, Calif.
Improving the College Introductory Astronomy Survey Course for Non-Science Majors Through Active Learning: A Tier I (Introductory) Workshop for Future Instructors

Apr. 12-13, 2008 — Jamestown, N.C.
Improving the College Introductory Astronomy Survey Course for Non-Science Majors Through Active Learning: A Tier I (Introductory) Workshop

Apr. 12, 2008 — Kalamazoo, Mich.
NASA CAE Great Lakes Regional Teaching Exchange

May 31-June 1, 2008 — St. Louis, Mo.
Improving the College Introductory Astronomy Survey Course for Non-Science Majors Through Active Learning: A Tier I (Introductory) Workshop

July/August/Sept. (Dates to be Determined) — Cleveland, Ohio
Improving the College Introductory Astronomy Survey Course for Non-Science Majors Through Active Learning: A Tier I (Introductory) Workshop

For more information and to register for workshops online, visit http://astronomy101.jpl.nasa.gov/workshops/index.cfm