Using Data Science in High School Astronomy

2025/01/08 by James Newland, Newland, James · 1 voice
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Mathematics · Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #Genetics, Bioinformatics, and Biomedical Research #Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) #Physics Education (physics.ed-ph) #Solar and Stellar Astrophysics (astro-ph.SR) #Statistics Education and Methodologies #astro-ph.IM #astro-ph.SR #physics.ed-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2501.04856

openalex publication_date 2025/01/08 · arxiv published 2025/01/08 · arxiv updated 2025/01/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

Astronomy datasets can be challenging to use for high school astronomy classes. Data science education pedagogy can be leveraged to create astronomy activities in which students interrogate data, create visuals, and use statistical thinking to construct astronomy knowledge. This session describes how the NASA/IPAC Infrared Science Archive (IRSA) can provide a web-based interface for students to use basic data science techniques in astronomy to build data literacy while learning astronomical concepts. The activities shared will be available for anyone but were designed to be used in astro 101 classes in high school or early college.

Discussions

• Applying data science to courses can make learning more robust and statistical thinking can be applied in other contexts. Students learn concepts & skills together. Example: learn how the HR diagram u [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]

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