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Teaching Astronomy – New Opportunities, Challenges, Tools, and Innovations

Session: 10D: 10-Minute Orals (4)

10D-1 - Citizen Scientists Analyze Exoplanet Transits in High School Classes

Friday, August 23, 2024
4:05 PM – 4:55 PM US PDT
Abstract: An inherent fascination for exoplanets motivates many budding scientists to pursue a career in STEM. In this short talk, we demonstrate how this interest was leveraged to achieve several interdisciplinary learning goals in a few high school classes using exoplanet transit data from a variety of sources. After a short introductory assignment, students use the EXOplanet Transit Interpretation Code from NASA Exoplanet Watch to analyze a set of time series images of a host star whose light is temporarily blocked by an orbiting planet. They compute the relative size of the planet from extent to which the host star is blocked from Earth’s line of sight, compare their analysis to previous transit reductions, comment on the chemical and biological implications of their exoplanet’s proximity to its host star, and consider the implications of their measurements’ uncertainties. By uploading their reductions, students become part of the NASA Exoplanet Watch citizen science community and are credited in subsequent publications that use their analysis. Student teaching assistants for the class have written one such publication, which is currently in review at the Journal of the American Association of Variable Star Observers. An extension of the project is underway with next year’s cohort of students.