Project CLEA is completing its development of computerized astronomy activities by creating an environment that can easily be adopted by astronomy teachers, not only to perform existing astronomy exercises, but also to design their own. The core of this project is to complete and disseminate VIREO, the Virtual Educational Observatory, a simulated multiwavelength observatory with a wide variety of instrumentation and analysis tools. VIREO, already available in a preliminary version, accesses its own local database to provide the look and feel of operating a variety of earth and space telescopes that can look anywhere in the sky. In its completed version it will also access a wide variety of data, primarily images and spectra, directly though the web, providing an educational gateway to the resources of the emerging virtual research observatories.
To accomplish this goal, (1) Project CLEA is completing the programming of VIREO and also designing and implementing a flexible Virtual-observatory Open-source Web Interface (VOWI) that will provide the link between the student software and the internet databases. This architecture, especially its open structure, insures the usefulness of VIREO beyond the duration of this grant. The software is to be accompanied by an extensive student manual and a complete technical guide. (2) Project CLEA is also developing several new astronomy exercises to demonstrate the power of VIREO, including exercises that emphasize observing strategies and current problems in astrophysics such as the search for high-z QSO's and the multi-wavelength imaging of star-forming regions. (3) Project CLEA is carrying on an active program of outreach, disseminating its materials on the web and through the mail. Equally important, it is educating teachers in the use of CLEA materials through workshops at national and regional professional meetings. A summer training workshop on astronomical research techniques for college teachers is scheduled for the Gettysburg College campus in June, 2008, and a training workshop on VIREO for developers of instructional material, in summer 2009.
