Teaching: Lab courses in astrophysics (at Univ. Göttingen)

In collaboration with a member of staff (Polis Papaderos) and a fellow student (Hagen Meyer) I was in charge of designing the experiment from base up, starting with possible science questions. We then made sure the student can complete all necessary work (incl. observations, data reduction, and data interpretation, but not including the time for familiarizing with the subject or writing up the final report) within the allocated time span of 8 hours.

We then continued to write the instructions, research supplementary background information that would be helpful for the student to know. We ran the experiment ourselves several times to ensure we did not overlook or miss anything as well as to gain the necessary experience to handle potentially arising problems

All experiments had a small collection of recommended background material (book excerpts, seminal papers, etc) that students could borrow from the instructor. This material is available upon request, but due to copyright restrictions cannot be published online.

Astronomy labs for undergraduate students:

In addition to labs targeting mostly MSc students, I also supervised two larger summer labs, where a small group of 4-6 students had to come up with their own research idea, define their science questions and conduct the full experiment.

Preparation of teaching material

I also revised and updated three astronomy beginner’s-lab instructions that are used as supplement to the introductory astronomy lecture (similar to Astro 103)

Spectra of active galactic nuclei: German – English (Google translated)
Morphology of galaxies: German – English (Google translated)
Photometrie of star clusters: German – English (Google translated)