Dear Astronomers, What Is It That You Do in the Practice of Your Science?

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Dear Astronomers, What is it that you do in the practice of your science? This email is an invitation to participate in a research study that explores the activities in which astronomers currently engage. The goal of the study is to characterize what it is that you do as a practicing astronomer. The results will provide educators, curriculum developers, and others a valuable tool as they work to create more authentic (real-world) experiences, improving astronomy learning for all. Participants in the survey must meet the following 4 requirements: • have one or more science or science related degrees, with at least one at the Masters Degree level or higher, • work primarily in one or more of the astronomy sub-disciplines (if you are unsure, please see definition of astronomy sub-disciplines at the end of this letter), • currently engaged in, or have engaged in, at least one astronomy related research project within the past two years, • and, be an astronomer primarily based in the United States, a U.S. territory, or a U.S. facility in another country. This research study is being conducted by Tim Spuck, a doctoral candidate in Curriculum and Instruction under the supervision of Dr. James Rye, professor in the West Virginia University College of Education and Human Services. This research study is part of a dissertation that is being conducted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Curriculum and Instruction Doctoral Program at West Virginia University. Your participation in this study is completely voluntary and consists of completing an online survey, which will take approximately 15 minutes. Your involvement in this research study will be kept as confidential as legally possible. It is not necessary for you to provide your name in order to participate in the study, and all data will appear as an aggregate in the final report without any association to participant names. However, at the end of the survey you will be given the option to answer several additional open-ended questions. If you chose to respond to these additional questions, you may choose to do so via the online survey, or you may request to respond via a telephone interview. If you chose the phone interview, you will be asked to provide your name and contact information, so that a phone interview can be arranged. Your name and contact information will remain confidential. Although your response to all questions is encouraged, you may skip any question that you do not wish to answer, and you may discontinue the survey at any time. West Virginia University's Institutional Review Board acknowledgement of this project is on file. LINK to the Online Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/Astro_Survey Thank you for your willingness to participate. If you have any questions, please contact me at [email protected] or 814-758-9527 (Cell). Sincerely, Tim Spuck Astronomy Sub-disciplines Defined • Archaeoastronomy • Astrobiology • Astrochemistry • Astroengineering • Astrometry • Astronomy Education • Astrophysics • Celestial mechanics • Computational astronomy • Physical cosmology • Extragalactic astronomy • Galactic astronomy • Gamma-ray astronomy • Gravitational-wave astronomy • Neutrino astronomy • Observational astronomy • Planetary science • Radio astronomy • Solar Astronomy • Stellar astronomy • X-ray astronomy .

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