Development of Practical Classes for Schoolchildren to Study Astronomical Catalogs

The diploma work is devoted to the development of practical classes for schoolchildren on studying astronomical data, astronomical catalogs and working with them. The work presents the material of the theoretical part of the classes, as well as practical work with GAIA VARI - a citizen science project for processing data from the modern GAIA space observatory and practical work with the astronomical data catalog of the HIPPARCOS space observatory using the Python language with detailed program layouts. The goal of the work is to teach how to work with real scientific data and modern astronomical catalogs, and through them to introduce students to the topic of variable stars, independently check and confirm the period-luminosity dependence obtained by G. Levitt on modern astronomical data, and discuss the importance of this dependence in modern astronomy and astrophysics. The relevance of the work is due to the need to develop schoolchildren's interest in astronomy, astrophysics and to form their basic knowledge of the structure of modern scientific data, as well as the opportunity to apply the skills obtained during the implementation of the developed practical tasks to solve problems in any field of activity where work with big data is necessary. The work consists of an introduction, three chapters, a conclusion, a list of used literature and sources of information. The first chapter describes the theoretical information from astronomy and astrophysics necessary for practical classes. The second chapter presents the development of the practical part of the classes using the HIPPARCOS catalog data and GAIA VARI astronomical data. The third chapter is devoted to the analysis of the results of the classes with schoolchildren and the assessment of the effectiveness of the proposed methodology, processing feedback from students and teachers. The results of the work can be used in the educational process to improve the quality of education of schoolchildren both in the field of astronomy and astrophysics, and in information technology and programming.