In November of 1996, I attended the second Hands-On Astrophysics (HOA) teachers' workshop held at the Headquarters of the American Association of Variable Star Observers (AAVSO) in Cambridge, Massachusetts. At the time I was teaching astrophysics and AP physics at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics in Limestone, Maine (a new residential math and science magnet school for juniors and seniors). I was looking for that nonexistent middle-ground material for my astrophysics class-halfway between basic introductory astronomy content and calculus-intensive astrophysics. During that workshop, as I considered the preliminary HOA materials before me, I decided that the concept of variable star observation had the potential to be a truly innovative and exciting curriculum. I went back to the magnet school and introduced my students to the process of estimating magnitudes, plotting light curves, and constructing phase diagrams with the VSTAR software.

In northern Maine in the middle of winter, early evening temperatures are often -25 to -35°F. But the night sky is stunningly beautiful with frequent aurorae and myriad stars, and the winter cold did not deter my students. I literally could not stop some of them from making their nightly observations. Seeing their enthusiasm, the idea passed through my mind that I would like to develop some classroom materials for teachers based on what the AAVSO had begun.

A few months later I was granted a yearlong residential fellowship at the Wright Center for Innovative Science at Tufts University, directed by Eric Chaisson. At the same time, AAVSO Director Janet Mattei asked if I would be interested in working as a development consultant for the HOA curriculum, thereby contributing the perspective of a recognized master classroom teacher with extensive experience in state science initiatives and national workshops. I decided that my project for the year at the Wright Center would be Hands-On Astrophysics.

The more involved I became with HOA, the more excited I became over the potential that the curriculum held for so many students and teachers. For the past year and a half I have been extensively involved in rewriting some preexisting materials and making copious additions to the manual. I have made every attempt to ensure that the manual is as easy to use as possible for classroom teachers, and is as interesting as possible for students, amateur astronomers, and other individuals.

The HOA curriculum will not work for content-driven courses. Instead, it is a self-directed study, with minimal input from teachers, which involves students in real science. There is nothing artificial or arbitrary or contrived. Hands-On Astrophysics students will do science in exactly the same way that professional scientists do science every single day. There are no right or wrong answers: the process is everything. The content is assimilated along the way as necessary, not presented as long and tedious text. This curriculum empowers students to take charge of a learning process that is applicable to every facet of their lives, whether educational or personal. No other science is as interesting or fascinating as astronomy, and doing astronomy is more interesting and fascinating than reading about it. Students can gain incredible insight into the scientific process with nothing more than their eyes and the contents of this curriculum.

Hands-On Astrophysics is an invitation to embark upon a journey into the very hearts of stars-to listen to the rhythms of their pulsations, and begin to gain an understanding of the processes by which they evolve. Along the way, students will acquire the necessary skills and knowledge to determine and comprehend the message encoded within starlight, but the strength and power of the journey is that it involves a complete immersion into the scientific process-the very foundation of how we construct knowledge. Those who undertake this journey will also realize an added benefit: an appreciation of the stellar inhabitants of our universe that may result in a lifelong avocation as an amateur astronomer, with the potential of making significant contributions to science.

Finally, Hands-On Astrophysics takes students out of the artificial confines of classroom walls to gather observational data from the night sky above them. This is where they will begin their own individual journeys to the stars and feel the same deep stirrings that our ancestors felt when they looked towards the stars. We have not lost our fascination for the night sky. The colored and dancing display overhead causes us to pause and reflect, invoking deep longings that take us back through millennia and connect us to our past. Our origins are in the stars, and so is our future. When we look up we feel connected to the grandeur of the sparkling array above us. And that is the final powerful interdisciplinary aspect of this curriculum-that both people and stars are connected, occupying their own places in time and space, living and dying together in the same universe.

I am proud to have had the opportunity to help in the development of Hands-On Astrophysics. I hope it has a major impact on astronomy education worldwide.

Donna L. Young HOA Manual Principal Author Curriculum Consultant

Medford, Massachusetts
USA December 1999