• Journal of the Korean Society of Earth Science Education
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.100-109
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• 2020

This study aimed to develop a 'star-car' operational program combining with the STEAM program and the PEST method for motivating elementary school students who belonged to less favored areas in terms of scientific culture to get an interest in astronomy and appropriately forming scientific concepts of Astronomy and Space and, subsequently, to examine the effectiveness of the program. For the purposes to be feasible, 5 experts participated in the study. They set a development direction of the program through a workshop, developed a draft with respect to a mobile astronomical observatory program of the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute, and then complete the development of the program through one trial application. The program which was developed in the study applied the STEAM program and targeted the elementary school students who lived in isolated regions of the scientific culture. The results of the research were as follows. First, The mobile astronomical observatory program developed in this study was improved as a program which stimulated the curiosity of elementary school students in all grades towards the Astronomy and Space. Second, The program developed in the study consisted of 11 periods in total; one period was for the presentation of the situation, five periods for emotional experience, the other five periods for creative design. Third, The results of analyzing the students' satisfaction were turned out to be effective in general. Judging from the aforementioned results, the mobile astronomical observatory program is expected to enhance learners' core competencies.

• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• v.38 no.1
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• pp.1-21
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• 2021

The observation of stellar occultations constitutes one of the most important techniques for determining the dimensions and establishing the physical parameters of small Solar System bodies. The most substantial calculations are obtained from multiple observations of the same event, which turns the observation of stellar occultations into highly collaborative work and groups teams of observers through international networks. The above situation also requires the participation of both professional and amateur observers in these collaborative networks. With the aim of promoting the participation of professional and amateur groups in the collaborative observation of stellar occultations, we present the methodology developed by the Astronomical Observatory of the Technological University of Pereira (OAUTP) for the observations of occultations due small Solar System bodies. We expose the three fundamental phases of the process: the plan to make observations, the capture of the events, and the treatment of the data. We apply our methodology using a fixed station and a mobile station to observe stellar occultations due to MBAs (354) Eleonora (61) Danae (15112) Arlenewolfe (3915) Fukushima (61788) 2000 QP181 (425) Cornelia (257) Silesia (386) Siegena and (41) Daphne, and due to TNOs 1998BU48 and (529823) 2010 PP81. The positive detections for the objects (257) Silesia (386) Siegena and (41) Daphne allow us to derive lower limits in the diameter of the MBAs of 63.1 km, 166.2 km and 158.7 km and offsets in the astrometric position (Δαc cos��c, Δ��c) of 622.30 ± 0.83, 15.23 ± 9.88 mas, 586.06 ± 1.68, 43.03 ± 13.88 mas and -413.44 ± 9.42, 234.05 ± 19.12 mas, respectively.