Google CoLaboratory as a Platform for Python Coding with Students

Abstract

Google CoLaboratory (Google CoLab) is a powerful collaborative tool for coding in Python with students. This work presents a project to calculate the period of an eclipsing binary system that was completed by Stanford Online High School students using Google CoLaboratory. The Las Cumbres Observatory 0.4m telescopes were used to obtain images, and photometry from the Our Solar Siblings pipeline was imported into Google CoLaboratory using JSON (Javascript Object Notation) for analysis in Python. Some additional classroom applications of Google CoLaboratory are highlighted, such as converting between astronomical coordinate systems.