The Virtual Observatory and Education: A View From the Classroom

Abstract

The design, construction, and implementation of a national Virtual Observatory will fundamentally change the way a large portion of archival astronomical research is conducted. Such a facility will also offer teachers in grades K-12, and certainly at the collegiate level, a new tool to introduce science to their students. The task of using a virtual observatory in a classroom is not merely one of understanding how to use the facility, however, but of understanding how to use the facility to teach. As important to the teacher as the Virtual Observatory itself will be the materials and instruction available on how to turn the facility into a virtual laboratory for student learning and experiment.