Astronomy GCSE's.

[Highflight]

Just toying with the idea of doing one of these Astronomy gcse courses, but I'm wondering if it's worth the effort. I know some of you Guy's and Girl's out there have done the course, and many congrats to you, but, what exactly do they teach you, and is it benificial financially? Where do you go for the course, or is it online? I think the main question for me is, How difficult is it? do you need to be Einsteign to understand things?. lol. I would be gratefull if someone could give me some info on it please.

Many thanks,

Chris.

[Capricorn]

Never done it or really looked into it. I would say that it depends on what you expect to get from it, and what you want to get from it. Would a GCSE be of any benefit to you?

I ask what you want from it as I have met people that started an astronomy course to find out that it wasn't being told each constellation and Messier object. Astronomy will mean newtonian mechanics, how the sun fuses hydrogen to helium, basic optics. Not observing stars.

Posted the link below the other day. It is a US online establishment, they also do an astronomy option. I have not looked so have no real idea of the contents. You could take the non-certificate option at whatever cost, think it was 40-45 dollars. The reason for mentioning it is that the cost isn't high and it is completely on-line so you can do it wherever. At the cost you could simply walk away from it if it wasn't suitabe and no great loss.

Introduction to Physics - Learn about acoustics, electromagnetism, electronics, nuclear power, optics, nanotechnology

Worked with someone that did an HTML one and they found it fairly good. Problem is that it wasn't with these people, well I think it wasn't.

[Matthew.Blake]

I went to an INSET day talking about the Astronomy GCSE recently and there was a lot of emphasis on observational skills. An example of an assessment you might do is sketching a messier object based on a nights observation. If you want to do one, go ahead, what better reason to learn is there than to want to?

[luna]

I suppose the best thing to do is to look at the edexcel website and read the actual specification; this gives more detail.

[Aldebaran5]

While on the subject, does any member sketch a plan of their viewing.

Keith

[narrowbandpaul]

an astronomy course will be based on real astronomy/astrophysics.

things like blackbody curves, pp chain, newtonian dynamics, maybe a bit of cosmology.

what wont be covered is polar aligning, although CCD's might.

it will be a mix of physics and maths.....

[Mark at Beaufort]

If you intested in GCSE astronomy contact this website. Home - GCSE Astronomy - STARLEARNER - David Martin who runs the company is a former Science/Astronomy teacher - lovely guy. I am sure he will give advice if you email him.

mark

[Highflight]

Well, after a good read-up and a few emails, I really can't see any point in going any further with a gcse course, they're not for me. I think I'll just carry on with attending Club courses.