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posted by mrpg on Tuesday December 27 2016, @11:24AM   Printer-friendly
from the good-ideas dept.

Non-science students enrolled in astrophotography classes created by scientists at the University of California, Riverside reported a better understanding of how to use a telescope and camera and how to process images, according to a recently published paper about the class.

In addition, after taking the classes, the students, most of whom were UC Riverside non-STEM (Science, Technology. Engineering, Mathematics) majors, were eager to take up astrophotography as a hobby, opening the path to become future citizen scientists and amateur astronomers, groups which historically have analyzed a lot of astronomical data and made numerous discoveries.

The idea of the classes was to engage students majoring in fields such as social sciences, humanities, business and arts in science. Astronomy is considered by many a gateway into science. More than 200,000 non-science majors enroll in an introductory astronomy class every year in the United States, but this will likely be their only interaction with a natural science during their undergraduate studies.

Astrophotography is a great way to teach science in a visual and hands-on manner, De Leo Winkler said. It also provides a way to break through the mathematical anxiety that many non-science majors experience.

https://ucrtoday.ucr.edu/43195

[Paper]: Astrophotography, a portal for engaging non-STEM majors in science

[Also Covered By]: Phys.org

I believe that Amateur Radio, Amateur Radio Astronomy, Amateur Rocketry (and similar activities) also has the potential to attract people, from all walks of life, to STEM subjects. Do you people think that this could be the best way to attract people to STEM disciplines ?


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by VLM on Tuesday December 27 2016, @01:59PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday December 27 2016, @01:59PM (#446338)

    I'm in the niche of working at an EE related utility but not as an EE more as programmer/sysadmin. Early training was weird because they can't process an "untrained outsider" knowing all kinds of electronic tech stuff. They were spooked, like at the start of "Dune" when Paul somehow knew all about being a freman. Wait I don't understand how can you know what a decibel is? Wait wait wait its supposed to take an hour for me to explain what group velocity dispersion is, you can't be explaining it to me in 30 seconds with oil pipeline analogies. Are you sure you didn't work at a different office or for a competitor, how can you as an outsider know our magic secrets like the care and feeding of a spectrum analyzer? Wait wait this is illogical how can you know broadband amplifier stabilization techniques without having worked here and taken my training class first? It was actually kinda funny.

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  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 27 2016, @02:35PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 27 2016, @02:35PM (#446345)

    He shall know your ways as if born to them.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 27 2016, @05:44PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 27 2016, @05:44PM (#446389)

    Maybe tell them that someone smarter than you or them them invented the tools they are using and told them how to use them. Maybe that will just blow their mind.

    Also, sounds like your "EE related utility" is a telco or cable company.