Thursday

Between 2016-2020 I delivered a module on Cultural Astronomy open to students enrolled in any undergrad course at West University of Timisoara Romania. It was the first such module in Romania and enabled me to engage students from arts, humanities, and sciences on topics including archaeoastronomy, ethnoastronomy, and history of astronomy. It was a highly popular module with 1 or 2 groups of students enrolled (35-70 students) depending on planning. I particularly found it to be popular among students studying arts and humanities. The delivery included 14 hours of lectures and 14 hours of seminars which included trips to nearby sites and museums of interests or visits to the planetarium. All students had the chance to learn how to use a telescope. Since astronomy is not taught in Romanian schools it was a unique opportunity for students and also a challenge for me to make them aware of the starry sky, introduce fundamental concepts, and explain its impact on our society. In a way the latter was a hands-on experience by students themselves. Having various backgrounds also allowed me to make the best of each student's background demonstrating that astronomy is present in each aspect of our lives. The summative assessments consisted of projects where each student had to focus on a specific topic in cultural astronomy based on his/hers beckground. Arts students studied the impact of astronomy in music, painting, architecture or created drawings/paintings of astronomical phenomena or 3D models of heritage sites which were enrolled in an astronomy contest. Science students analyzed by using tools such as Google Earth or Stellarium archaeoastronomy sites. Some of these students stayed on as volunteers for outreach astronomy activities.
This talk will focus on the methodology and impact that this module had on students as well as on the challenges regarding grading.