INFRARED ASTRONOMY IN SCIENCE AND EDUCATION By Paul Anthony Mayeur A Thesis ...

282 Pages·2013·5.53 MB·English

by  Paul Mayeur

INFRARED ASTRONOMY IN SCIENCE AND EDUCATION

By

Paul Anthony Mayeur

A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate
Faculty of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
Major Subject: Multidisciplinary Science

Approved by the
Examining Committee:

________________________________________________
Douglas C. B. Whittet, Thesis Adviser

_________________________________________________
Alandeom W. Oliveira, Thesis Adviser

_________________________________________________
Bruce Watson, Member

_________________________________________________
Wayne Roberge, Member

_________________________________________________
Jim Napolitano, Member

Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
Troy, New York

June 2013
(For Graduation August 2013)
UMI Number: 3601018
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CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES........................................................................................................................................iv

LIST OF FIGURES........................................................................................................................................v

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS...........................................................................................................................vii

ABSTRACT....................................................................................................................................................ix

1. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND...........................................................................................1

2. ASTRONOMY IN MIDDLE-SCHOOL EDUCATION: A LITERATURE REVIEW.............21

3. EDUCATION RESEARCH METHODOLOGY...............................................................................56

4. EDUCATION RESEARCH RESULTS..............................................................................................72

5. SCIENCE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY AND RESULTS.....................................................125

6. CONCLUSIONS...................................................................................................................................165

REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................................174

APPENDIX A: CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS....................................................................................186

APPENDIX B: SURVEY OF TEACHERS.................... .....................................................................187

APPENDIX C: PRE-LESSON TEACHER INTERVIEW QUESTIONS.....................................190

APPENDIX D: POST-LESSON INTERVIEW QUESTIONS........................................................192

APPENDIX E: STUDENT CONSENT FORM..................................................................................193

APPENDIX F: IRB FORMS..................................................... .............................................................194

APPENDIX G: INITIAL LESSON BEFORE TEACHER MEETINGS........................................200

APPENDIX H: TEACHER INTERVIEW TRANSCRIPTS...........................................................225

APPENDIX I: POWERPOINT OF ADAPTED LESSON...............................................................266

APPENDIX J: DATA FOR ADAPTED LESSON..............................................................................270

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LIST OF TABLES
Table 1.1: Properties of DC 314.8-5.1…………………………………………………………………18
Table 2.1: Comparison of Conventional, Hands-On, and Inquiry Based Approaches
to Science Education…………………………………………………………………………46
Table 2.2: Comparison of How Scientist and Educators Approach Science Topics...51
Table 3.1: Data Collection and Analysis Timeline………………………………………………..68
Table 3.2: Overview of the Methods of Data Collection, Data Analysis, and Research
Questions…………………………………………………………………………………………69
Table 4.1: Summary of Teachers’ Backgrounds……………………………………....…………..78

Table 4.2: Summary of Lesson…………………………………………………………………………...97

Table 4.3: Summary of Major Lesson Adaptations………....................................................111

Table 5.1: Summary of Data Sources………………………………………………………………..126

Table 5.2: Associations obtained from SIMBAD search within the field of
interest………………………………………………………………………………………......138
Table 5.3: Catalog of reddened field stars and candidate young stellar object with
associated data (in magnitude units) for DC 314.8-5.1……………………...146
Table 5.4: Catalog of bright (H-band < 12.0 mag) sources with significant visual
extinction (> 5.0 mag) and associated data (in magnitude units) for DC
314.8-5.1………………………………………………………………………………………..164

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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1: Step-by-step guide to star and planet formation from an interstellar
cloud…………………………………………………………………………………………………8
Figure 1.2: Radiation from a field star having an initial intensity passes through a
dust cloud and suffers extinction. An instrument measures the
radiation, I , from the star. The star located behind the cloud is called a
v
field star while the one located inside the cloud is called an embedded
star. DC314 is a special cloud in which a B-type star is located very close
affecting the chemistry inside…………………………………………………………17
Figure 5.1: Digitalized Sky Survey (DSS) R-Plate image of 20' x 15' field centered on
the nominal position of DC 314.8-5.1 (R.A. = 14h 48m 29s, decl. = -65°
15.9'; J2000.0). North is to the top and East is to the left. The ellipse is
the same as in Whittet (2007)………………………………………………………..127
Figure 5.2: Image of DC314 at (a) 3.6 microns and (b) 8.0 microns……………………128
Figure 5.3: Color-color diagrams for sources listed in Table 5.3: (a) J-H vs. H-K (b) J-
H vs. H-[4.5], (c) J-H vs. H-[5.8], and (d) J-H vs. H-[8.0]. The thick curves
in (a) and (b) represent intrinsic colors for normal unreddened stars
(top branch: giants; bottom branch: dwarfs). The thin diagonal lines in
(a) and (b) mark the boundaries of the P and D regions in the plot (Itoh
et al. 1996); stars in the P region are consistent with normal reddened
photospheres, while those in the D region may include a significant
circumstellar disk component. Similar information for (c) and (d) is not
available………………………………………………………………………………………..131
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Figure 5.4: Map of the distribution of sources identified in this work (Table 5.3;
J2000.0 coordinates). Ellipse corresponds to ellipse in Figure 5.1……133
Figure 5.5: Spectral energy distribution of J14492607-6515421 (Source Y in
Whittet, 2007)……………………………………………………………………………….135
Figure 5.6: Histogram of 420 extinction values from Table 5.3 divided into 1 mag
bins……………………………………………………………………………………………….140
Figure 5.7: Contour map of A values found in Table 5.3 and distributed in Figure
V
5.6………………………………………………………………………………………………...141
Figure 5.8: Color-color diagram of brown dwarf sources from Kirpatrick 2011. The
source of interest from this research can be seen to the right under the
cut-off line for extragalactic sources along with “Source Y” from Whittet
(2007)…………………………………………………………………………………………..142
Figure 5.9: Spectral Energy Distribution of IRAS 14437-6503 (Source I from
Whittet, 2007)……………………………………………………………………………….143
Figure 5.10: Spectral Energy Distribution of high A , high H-band magnitude
v
sources featured in Table 5.4……………………………………………………….145

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ACKNOWLEDGMENT
First I would like to thank the New York Center for Astrobiology (NYCA) and
the NASA Astrobiology Institute (NAI) for the funding that allowed me to pursue my
research and interests.
I am grateful to not have had one, but TWO great advisors who have guided
me through my research. Both have aided me in a way many others would not have
been able to. Dr. Whittet saw my interest in education and encouraged me to pursue
it. Dr. Oliveira took a student with no experience in education research and with
great patience aided my growth. I would also like to thank my committee who has
either been my teacher or a sounding board to ask questions and talk about my
research to. I want to thank Dr. Sawyer, who as an undergrad, convinced me that
physics was my calling not computer science. He guided me through the graduate
school application process as well as undergraduate research which showed me that
astronomy was my love. Thanks to Dr. Newberg who accepted me as a summer
research student, which not only introduced me to RPI, but introduced me to
astronomy research. Two things I fell in love with.
Once at RPI I made some great friends and met people who have really
helped me outside of school. Nicole’s title may be “Administrative Associate,” but in
my eyes she is much more. Not only a friend who will talk to you, but a person who
is willing to help you answer any question you may have. She goes beyond her
duties to make sure you are doing well, staying sane, and for that I am deeply
grateful. I want to thank David, for not only helping me with multiple programming
problems, but becoming a gym buddy. Exercising helped take away the stress of
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finishing my degree and I know I would have stopped long ago if not for him. To
Sachin for helping me understand my initial research and guiding me through some
very tough processes and to Amanda for not only helping me with my research
questions, but for getting me out of the house to do things. I also made a lifelong
friend at RPI, in Ben Willett. Ben was the person I would talk to about things that
were not research. He helped keep me sane. When he graduated school became
much harder, but his e-mails and texts really pushed me. I miss our discussions and
debates.
I want to thank my family for pushing me to keep going with my education.
Their encouragement was a strong factor in me getting my doctorate. However, the
person I want to thank more than anyone else is my girlfriend, fiancé, and now wife
Christine who made this all possible. People will see me with my degree, but fifty
percent of this is hers. Through eight years she has been by my side helping me in
every way imaginable from helping me fill out graduate school applications to
reading and editing countless documents to aid me in my writing. At points it may
have been hard on us, but I know it has made us stronger. I feel I could write an
entire dissertation just thanking her, but I tell her in person every day how thankful
I am for her. She has changed my life in so many ways there is no way for me to ever
properly thank her. So before you congratulate me you need to congratulate
Christine for everything she had to put up with. If you know me, you know how
much she deserves it.

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ABSTRACT

This dissertation looks at the effects of an educator-scientist partnership on
the creation of an inquiry based science lesson for the middle school classroom. The
lesson was initially created by a scientist following their science research, but
changed as the scientist began working with teachers. The changes in the lesson
show that scientists and educators may not agree on what is considered appropriate
for a science lesson because of time commitment and grade level. However, by
working together the partnership is able to reach a compromise of the lesson that
allows for the students to get the best possible outcome. This dissertation also
shows that science research is a method of inquiry, which can be brought to the
classroom through inquiry education.
The science research the lesson followed looks at the interstellar dust cloud
DC 314.8-5.1, which is unique because of the cloud’s proximity to a B-type star with
no known association. This thesis did a survey of the area looking for background
sources that can be used for future spectroscopical studies. Further, the survey led
to the discovery of two possible young stellar objects.
In order to fuel educator-scientist interaction and to bring inquiry education
into the middle school classroom a scientist created a web-based science lesson that
incorporated real NASA data into the middle-school classroom. This lesson was
based on the scientist’s research in infrared astronomy within the broader context
of astrobiology. The lesson includes students plotting real data; in the process the
students learn about infrared radiation, star color, and the wavelength/temperature
relationship. These are all topics that were studied in the scientist’s research, which
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