Peer Instruction for Astronomy
by Paul J. Green
Category: Science

For courses in Introductory Astronomy. Peer Instruction is a simple yet effective method for teaching science. Techniques of Peer Instruction for introductory college Physics classes were developed primarily at Harvard, and have aroused interest and excitement in the Physics Education community. This approach involves students in the teaching process, making physics more accessible to them. Peer Instruction is a new trend in astronomy that is finding strong interest and is ideally suited to introductory Astronomy classes. This book is an important vehicle for providing common ground for instructors using the method nationwide, and also provides a bridge to future collaborative efforts by instructors. It is key that the instructor has a large number of thought-provoking, conceptual short-answer questions aimed at a variety of class levels. While significant numbers of such questions have been published for use in Physics, Peer Instruction for Astronomy provides the first such compilation for Astronomy.