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Here we present an analysis of 14 transit light curves of the hot Jupiter HAT-P-54 b. Thirteen of our datasets were obtained with the 6-inch MicroObservatory telescope, Cecilia, and one was measured with the 61-inch Kuiper Telescope. We used the EXOplanet Transit Interpretation Code (EXOTIC) to reduce 49 datasets in order to update the planet’s ephemeris to a mid-transit time of 2460216.95257 ± 0.00022 BJD_TBD and an updated orbital period of 3.79985363 ± 0.00000037 days. These results improve the mid-transit uncertainty by 70.27% from the most recent ephemeris update. The updated mid-transit time can help to ensure the efficient use of expensive, large ground- and space-based telescope missions in the future. This result demonstrates that amateur astronomers and citizen scientists can provide meaningful, cost-efficient, crowd-sourcing observations using ground-based telescopes to further refine current mid-transit times and orbital periods. 

Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) have been shown to provide students with a variety of learning benefits including better conceptual understanding, improved critical thinking and data literacy skills, and increased interest in pursuing scientific careers. Additionally, CUREs provide students with opportunities to participate in authentic research experiences that have a broader impact outside of the classroom. Despite the numerous benefits, the field of astronomy has lagged behind disciplines like biology and chemistry when it comes to including CUREs in the curriculum. Not limited to astronomy, however, is the lack of research opportunities and courses offered to students enrolled in undergraduate degree programs online. In the Fall of 2020, Arizona State University (ASU) introduced the nation’s first online bachelor’s degree program in astronomy and planetary sciences (APS). To make research accessible to a more diverse population of learners, it is imperative that students in this program have access to the same opportunities to participate in authentic research as those in the parallel in-person program. In this work, we describe the development, implementation, and assessment of a fully online CURE for astronomy majors as part of the APS program. We conducted a mixed methods analysis consisting of a Likert style survey administered pre- and postcourse as well as student interviews at the conclusion of the semester. Survey results from the course’s first two offerings (N ¼ 24) indicated that students’ research self-efficacy and science identity both improved. An exoplanet-specific multiple-choice assessment (N ¼ 26) showed statistically significant improvements in conceptual understanding postcourse. Additionally, student interview (N ¼ 11) responses relayed that students felt a stronger sense of belonging to both ASU and the larger astronomy community after participation in the course. The results from this study are encouraging and suggest that student participation in this online CURE led to similar improvements across a variety of outcomes previously identified in studies of in-person CUREs spanning multiple disciplines. 

There is a critical need for research-based active learning instructional materials for the teaching and learning of STEM in online courses. Every year, hundreds of thousands of undergraduate non-science majors enroll in general education astronomy courses to fulfill their institution’s liberal arts requirements. When designing instructional materials for this population of learners, a central focus must be to help learners become more scientifically and data literate. As such, we developed a new, three-part, curricular model that was used to inform the creation of active-learning instructional materials designed for use in online courses. The instructional materials were designed to help introductory astronomy students engage meaningfully with science while simultaneously improving their data literacy self-efficacy (especially as it pertained to making evidence-based conclusions when presented with a variety of data representations). We conducted a pilot study of these instructional materials at nine different colleges and universities to better understand whether students’ engagement with these materials lead to improved beliefs and self-efficacy. The results of our student survey analysis showed statistically significant changes on survey items that assessed students’ beliefs about science engagement, citizen science, and their data literacy skills. Additionally, we assessed whether faculty who implemented these materials were able to easily incorporate them into existing online astronomy courses. The instructor feedback emphasized that our curriculum development model did successfully inform the creation of easy-to-implement instructional materials, generating the potential for widespread dissemination and use at the undergraduate level. 

Using the EXOplanet Transit Interpretation Code (EXOTIC), we reduced 52 sets of images of WASP-104 b, a Hot Jupiter-class exoplanet orbiting WASP-104, in order to obtain an updated mid-transit time (ephemeris) and orbital period for the planet. We performed this reduction on images taken with a 6-inch telescope of the Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian MicroObservatory. Of the reduced light curves, 13 were of sufficient accuracy to be used in updating the ephemerides for WASP-104b, meeting or exceeding the three-sigma standard for determining a significant detection. Our final mid-transit value was 2457805.170208 ± 0.000036 BJD_TBD and the final period value was 1.75540644 ± 0.00000016 days. The true significance of our results is in their derivation from image sets gathered over time by a small, ground-based telescope as part of the Exoplanet Watch citizen science initiative, and their competitive results to an ephemeris generated from data gathered by the TESS telescope. We use these results to further show how such techniques can be employed by amateur astronomers and citizen scientists to maximize the efficacy of larger telescopes by reducing the use of expensive observation time. The work done in the paper was accomplished as part of the first fully online Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience (CURE) for astronomy majors in the only online Bachelor of Science program in Astronomical and Planetary Sciences.