From Real-Life Astronomy Research Questions to Olympiad Problems

This is a poster presented at the 6th Shaw-IAU Workshop on Astronomy for Education, organised by the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE, http//astro4edu.org). Title: From Real-Life Astronomy Research Questions to Olympiad Problems Presenter:Catalina-Ana, Miritescu (IFAE, Barcelona) Data analysis tasks are part of the Astronomy Olympiad in Romania. I created three problems based on real-life research projects. One problem presents noise sources characterization in gravitational wave detectors while it also assesses students’ ability to comfortably use a logarithmic scale and to perform a linear fit. One exercise uses real spectra of galaxies in the COSMOS field for Doppler shift and spectral line calculations. Data from the citizen science website Zooniverse.org is used in the third problem, presenting this novel way of research while testing pupils’ knowledge about error propagation and exoplanets. Although the short-term goal is to select the best competitors, the long-term aim is to teach all participants about current topics and methodologies in Astronomy research About the 6th Shaw-IAU Workshop:The 6th Shaw-IAU Workshop took place:12 - 15 November 2024. The Shaw-IAU workshops focus on astronomy education for primary and secondary school students and teacher training both in universities and in service. This year's workshop featured two special topics: an exploration of the first two years of the James Webb Space Telescope for the scientific topic, and the crucial aspect of evaluation in educational contexts as the non-scientific topic.More details can be found on: https://astro4edu.org/shaw-iau/Keep up to date with future Shaw-IAU Workshops and other opportunities at the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education by joining our mailing list https://astro4edu.org/mailing-list/Follow the IAU OAE on Bluesky and Facebook under @astro4edu