This paper describes the application of evaluation methods to a distance course and discusses the need for ongoing evaluation to control the quality of distance education courses. During the last quadrimester of 1996, a course in Graphic Mechanics was offered in Brazil through a distance education program entitled "Programa Educ@r" 1 via the World Wide Web. Evaluation methods and data analysis were developed and applied during the period of the course, and results of the evaluation are discussed.
The present article describes some activities performed with high-school students in the Solar Physics course developed in a Brazilian science centre. The topics of chemical composition, temperature and stellar evolution were taught in a room totally dedicated to study of the Sun, a solar room, designed with simple and inexpensive equipment. The course strongly emphasized practical, observational and enquiry-based activities, such as estimating the solar surface temperature, observation of the visible solar spectrum, identification of solar absorption lines, and understanding how they are produced and what kind of information can be extracted from the observed spectral lines. Some of the course goals were to foster the comprehension of the key role played by spectroscopy in astrophysics, to contextualize contents with practical activities, and to allow interdisciplinary approaches including modern physics and chemistry in physics teaching.
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