Teaching Scientific Inquiry with Galaxy Zoo

Abstract

The universe of topics to choose from when teaching an astronomy course is astronomically immense. This wide array of opportunity presents some inherently difficult choices for teachers at all levels on how to limit the scope of the course to make the syllabus manageable. As but one example, consider that even the most experienced astronomy teacher must choose between focusing on the astrophysics of stellar processes or on the nomenclature for stars and constellations because there is rarely time to give both justice. One might go as far as saying that planning an astronomy course is similar to the perspective offered by Michael Pollan in his book The Omnivore's Dilemma, which can be paraphrased as, “When entering a modern grocery store in the U.S. with unlimited choices, what is it that one chooses to eat and why?” Indeed, teaching about the entire universe in a single astronomy course involves some serious choices, as one can most certainly not teach everything.