Data from Catalogues of Solar System Objects in Education

Abstract This contribution contains attractive examples that use catalogues of astronomical objects available at Astronomia web pages (astronomia.zcu.cz) to improve the teaching of selected astronomical topics. The main focus is to Solar system objects, list of numbered minor planets is used to demonstrate the current position of objects in the Solar system, to construct a Kirkwood gap graph or to interactively verify Kepler’s laws. I put emphasis on involving students in practical activities, so the results of my research are several worksheets. All worksheets include basic procedure. Each part of worksheet is complemented by sub-questions that deepen knowledge of students and it provides welcomed feedback for teacher. All these features are available as online applications on web pages and it can be used during ICT lessons. I tried worksheets on a significant sample of secondary school pupils and university students. As a result I discovered that students usually do not have possibility to solve this kind of exercise (using data from catalog of astronomical objects) at school. Students cannot handle basic transactions in the Excel spreadsheet, especially inserting formulas into cells, data sorting or constructing a simple chart.