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West Virginia University · Radio Astronomy Instrumentation Laboratory DSPIRA

For contributors

Contribute a DSPIRA lesson

Share an activity, worksheet, or improvement with the DSPIRA teaching community.

You can contribute without using GitHub. Start with your existing document or use the template below. We welcome complete activities, small corrections, and reports from classroom use.

Send a lesson draft

  1. Download the planning template.
  2. Open it in a text editor, or copy its outline into Word or Google Docs.
  3. Add your activity, teacher notes, worksheets, and editable originals.
  4. Email your draft to rail@wvu.edu.

For a shared document, give the lab access to read and copy it. Include the public credit you want displayed. The lab will prepare a website version and share a preview for review.

What to include

  • A short summary, intended students, and estimated class time.
  • Learning objectives, prerequisites, equipment, and preparation.
  • Student instructions and teacher notes.
  • Editable worksheets, printable copies, image descriptions, and source credits.
  • Tested software versions and hardware revisions, when relevant.
  • Classroom results, or a note that the activity has not been tested.

Keep sentences short and explain unfamiliar terms. Preserve exact titles, citations, code, and quotations. Please leave student names, grades, and private information out of submissions. Teacher notes published here are public. Keep restricted answer keys in your school’s classroom system.

Review before publication

A maintainer checks the files, credits, links, and page structure. An educator reviews the instructions and learning goals. The author reviews the preview before the lesson is published. Changes can return to draft whenever clarification is needed. The lesson receives a permanent address that can be used in handouts.

Contribute through GitHub

Regular contributors can submit a pull request to the DSPIRA repository. Use the Markdown template and the contributor guide.

Replace the template prompts. Choose one existing module and an unused order value. Ask a maintainer if either choice is unclear. Save the file as YYYY-MM-DD-Short-Name.md in _posts/. Choose a stable lesson address before publication.

Open the lesson submission form if you prefer to discuss a draft first. GitHub submissions are public and require an account.

Suggest a small correction

Email rail@wvu.edu with the page address and your suggested change. You can also use the lesson submission form. A full lesson template is unnecessary for a typo or broken link.