An update on FT in Israel, by Boaz Ron-Zohar

I've been a High School physics teacher for 15 years, and live with my wife and my two kids in Kfar-Vradim, in West Galilee, Israel. I currently teach physics in two places:

Ulpanat Zvia Maalot - a high school for girls only.

Aheret - a “Projects Centre” in West Galilee for high school students.

In the Aheret Projects Centre, students from 4 different high schools, both Jewish and Arab, are conducting research projects in physics, and hand them in to the Board of Education instead of taking final exams in physics.

During the past two years I have completed a Masters degree in physics education at Tel-Aviv University. I have studied astronomy and astrophysics courses during my first and second degree in physics education, and decided to combine these in my Masters.

My thesis subject was “Astronomical research conducted by high school students using robotic telescopes”. In my thesis I wanted to check if high school physics students from Israel could plan and carry out astronomical observations using a robotic telescope, then process the pictures they took, organize and analyze the data and finally write a scientific paper about
their research.

The goal of the student research projects was to find the distribution of blue clusters in spiral galaxies, determine the types of the distribution and comparing it to star formation distribution types. This research confirmed the conclusions of Noah Brosch in 1992, which is that it is possible to study the pattern of recent star formation in galaxies from colour images. Brosch's research was based on an existing colour atlas of galaxies, while this research was based on actual observations the students made with the Faulkes Telescopes. Each of four students, and one per of students, took pictures of one Galaxy. Images of five different spiral galaxies were taken: NGC 5371, NGC 5921, NGC 3810, NGC 3596 and NGC 3631. These galaxies were chosen since they are face on, have angular sizes smaller than 4.6 arcminutes (so they can fit in one image made by the Faulkes Telescopes) and had good visibility at the time of the research.

After searching and reading articles on the subject I discovered the Faulkes Telescope Project. I contacted Paul Roche, asking him to let a group of my students use the telescopes. I was happy to get his approval and soon seven students started conducting observations. They succeeded in conduction their research and handed out papers to the Israeli board of education.

One of the students commented that Although it was hard work doing the research, I really enjoyed taking part in this project. As a result of this project, I have enriched my knowledge in astronomy, space and physics”.

This year a new group of students will start to conduct FT research projects. I would like to thank the Faulkes Project for the opportunity to use the telescopes, and to thank Paul Roche and Fraser Lewis for supporting my students in their research. It is a dream that came true for us!