This document is an attempt to correlate the free OpenStax Astronomy textbook and several other resources including lecture tutorials and lab activities. Below is a list of the items in the correlation followed by a chapter breakdown of the text and where one of the resources could be used.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Lesson Plan, Textbook
This is a guide to science fiction stories and novels which are based on reasonably good science (and can thus be recommended in introductory astronomy courses.) The stories are organized by astronomical topic. While most of the stories are available only in print, a number are now published electronically free of charge, and links to those are included.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Case Study
This is a guide for Astronomy 101 instructors (and other educators) on the issues that have faced women in astronomy and the work of some of the women who can serve as role models for the next generation. Written by Andrew Fraknoi (Foothill College), it is part of a series called “Unheard Voices,” sponsored by the Heliophysics Forum of the Space Missions Directorate at NASA. The guide includes written, on-line, and audio-visual materials, many of which can be used directly in the classroom or for student papers. It features sections on: the history of women in astronomy in general, materials on selected women astronomers of the past, issues facing women in astronomy today, and materials on selected contemporary women astronomers.
Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy
This resource guide, for instructors and students in introductory astronomy courses, focuses on the contributions to astronomy of African, Asian, Hispanic, South Pacific, Islamic, and Native American cultures. It also contains a section on reports and articles for achieving greater diversity in science. Written by Andrew Fraknoi, the guide is part of a series sponsored by the Heliophysics Forum of the Space Missions Directorate at NASA. It includes written, on-line, and audio-visual materials, which can be used directly in the classroom, for student papers, or for personal enrichment.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This resource is a concise guide to where free lab manuals and exercises are available on the web.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This sample syllabus for a course on planets, exoplanets, and SETI (using the OpenStax Astronomy textbook) may help beginning instructors think through what sorts of things they might want to put on a syllabus. It can also provide guidance on how to select key sections of the textbook for a course that doesn’t have time to cover everything.
Material Type: Syllabus
A simple zero-based course design process enables you to better organize your Astro 101 course and make it more understandable to students. This process covers establishing teaching goals, developing core ideas, determining student outcomes, and assessing learning.
Material Type: Teaching/Learning Strategy
This is a project I assign my students in an introductory, non-science major astronomy class. Each student is assigned one of the 25 brightest stars in the sky and they are asked to research and apply concepts they have been learning in the class to their particular star. I leave it up to them to decide the format of their final project - most do PowerPoint but some have done videos or podcasts. One student actually landed a part time job at a radio station after they heard her recording her star project! Many students tell me this is a highlight of the course!
Material Type: Assessment
This OER explores the basic operations of a Celestial Globe. It contains both an activity as well as resources for further exploration. It is a product of the OU Academy of the Lynx, developed in conjunction with the Galileo's World Exhibition at the University of Oklahoma.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This is a list of video lectures that I have created for an online class that I teach. These are lectures from each of the 30 chapters in the OpenStax textbook. The lectures generally run between 10 and 20 minutes and I have created 2-4 per chapter. The links are all to videos loaded to YouTube and are all captioned (edited by me, not YouTube auto captioning). Images were obtained from Wikimedia Commons and were limited to those in the public domain or under a CC license and are credited in the footer of each slide. Feel free to use any that you find useful or provide the list to students who may want to review the materials. For anyone interested, I can provide access to the lecture slides as well so that they could be modified to fit your specific requirements. You can contact me directly at: rmwagner@hacc.edu This resource has been updated to a full list of 99 lectures covering all 30 chapters in the book.
Material Type: Lecture
This activity by Lauren Roberts guides students through the process of finding, vetting, summarizing, and citing a scientific article. Professor Roberts is from South Mountain Community College in Arizona's Maricopa Community College District.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
The spring 2017 syllabus for the General Astronomy Course (AST 110), developed as part of the textbook free courseware initiative at Borough of Manhattan Community College.
Material Type: Syllabus
Accessible presentation files created for the Astronomy - Intellus Open Course. Intellus Open Courses are curated by academic subject-matter experts in partnership with Macmillan Learning’s editorial teams. Licensed under CC-BY: https://go.intelluslearning.com/attribution
Material Type: Lecture Notes, Student Guide
This site is devoted to debunking astronomical misconceptions. Many topics are covered, including the blue sky, white stars, pseudoscience, the moon, and astrology, among others.
Material Type: Lesson
Earth science is the study of our home planet and all of its components: its lands, waters, atmosphere, and interior. In this book, some chapters are devoted to the processes that shape the lands and impact people. Other chapters depict the processes of the atmosphere and its relationship to the planets surface and all our living creatures. For as long as people have been on the planet, humans have had to live within Earths boundaries. Now human life is having a profound effect on the planet. Several chapters are devoted to the effect people have on the planet. Chapters at the end of the book will explore the universe beyond Earth: planets and their satellites, stars, galaxies, and beyond.
Material Type: Full Course, Textbook
These concept connection cards can be used in small groups or for self study. They help students build an understanding of three core topics in astronomy -- the HR diagram, light, and fusion. The file includes instructions for usage, as well as cards in multiple formats. They were created by Kaisa Young from Nicholls State University.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This group activity engages students in the calculation of absorption spectra. It is appropriate for any course covering the baseline mathematical concepts of atomic spectra, including chemistry, physics, astronomy, and related courses.
Material Type: Activity/Lab
This resource lists short videos (less than 15 min) that could go with each chapter of the OpenStax Astronomy textbook. Some are one minute animations, others are elaborately produced documentary segments. A few are cartoons. All can be obtained from the web and links are given in the document.
Material Type: Activity/Lab, Diagram/Illustration, Lecture, Simulation
In this guide, you will find books, articles, and websites that help teachers of astronomy address some of the weird topics on the fringes of science that students sometimes hear about and want to have clarification for. Included are astrology, UFOs as alien spaceships, crop circles, denial of evolution and the big bang, the “face” on Mars, claims that NASA never landed astronauts on the Moon, and others.
Material Type: Student Guide
This resource suggests some of the best places on the web for astronomy instructors to obtain high-quality images for showing in class (and gives the direct URL for obtaining the photos). It includes general sources, such as the Hubble image gallery and NASA’s Planetary Photojournal, as well as more specific sources for a particular observatory or wavelength range.
Material Type: Reading
