Science data based astronomy education

Virtual Observatory (VO) is meeting the challenges resulting from the large new influxes of data in astronomy. Worldwide Telescope, as an embodiment of VO, provides a powerful science data based education environment for educators and students. In the paper, the critical requirements for science data based education are discussed; VO and WWT and their features are introduced; and experiences learned from astronomy courses based on the WWT at Central China Normal University are given out. The experiences indicates that WWT is a wonderful tool to astronomy teaching and learning, it made teaching more active, aspiring, interesting, visual, vivid and different from traditional teaching.