iStarDB (The Astronomy Education Research Repository)
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Prospective Pre-School Teachers’ Attitudes towards Astronomy
No full textThe purpose of this study is to examine the changes in prospective pre-school teachers’ attitudes towards astronomy in terms of their grades. The study was conducted with 205 prospective teachers (1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th graders) studying in the education faculty of a university in Eastern Anatolia region of Turkey. Astronomy Attitude Scale (AAS) was used as data collection instrument. One-Way Anova was used for independent groups in data analysis in order to find out whether prospective pre-school teachers’ attitudes towards astronomy differed in terms of their grades. Data analysis results showed that prospective pre-school teachers’ attitudes towards astronomy did not differ significantly in terms of their grades. In addition, it was concluded that while prospective pre-school teachers had positive attitudes such as associating astronomy with daily life, thinking that astronomy can be learned better through applied
activities and contemporary developments about astronomy attracted their attention, they also had negative attitudes such as feeling insecure about astronomy subjects and not liking the field of astronomy. In line with these results, it was recommended that the number of physical sciences lessons in pre-school teaching departments in education faculties should be increased
Order Matters: Sequencing Scale-Realistic Versus Simplified Models to Improve Science Learning
No full textTeachers choosing between different models to facilitate students’ understanding of an abstract system must decide whether to adopt a model that is simplified and striking or one that is realistic and complex. Only recently have instructional technologies enabled teachers and learners to change presentations swiftly and to provide for learning based on multiple models, thus giving rise to
questions about the order of presentation. Using disjoint
individual growth modeling to examine the learning of
astronomical concepts using a simulation of the solar system on tablets for 152 high school students (age 15), the authors detect both a model effect and an order effect in the use of the Orrery, a simplified model that exaggerates the scale relationships, and the True-to-scale, a proportional model that more accurately represents the realistic scale relationships. Specifically, earlier exposure to the simplified model resulted in diminution of the conceptual gain from the subsequent realistic model, but the realistic model
did not impede learning from the following simplified
model
Effects of two combined methods on the teaching of basic astronomy concepts
No full textThe authors mainly aimed to investigate the following question: Are there any significant effects of the first combined method of a conceptual change approach with refutation text, worksheets, and activities with respect to the second combined method of a conceptual change approach with conceptual texts, presentations, and activities on students’ misconceptions and achievement on a 3-tier posttest score measuring Grade 7 basic astronomy concepts when independent variables are controlled? There was a statistically significant effect of the first combined method with respect to the second method at the medium effect size on both misconception scores and achievement scores. This finding clearly demonstrates that use of the first combined method, which included refutation texts with worksheets, eliminated the students’ misconceptions and increased their achievement. The second combined method
also increased the students’ achievement, but almost 40% of their misconceptions remained
Skynet Junior Scholars - From Idea to Enactment Tales from the Trenches III: Implementing SJS in Out-of-School Time Settings
No full textThe creators of Skynet Junior Scholars were ambitious to say the least when they set out to:- Develop online tools that enable middle school and high school aged youth to use robotic optical and radio telescopes to do astronomy- Create an inquiry-based curriculum that promotes critical thinking and scientific habits of mind- Proactively incorporate Principles of Universal Design in all SJS development tasks to ensure access by blind/low vision and deaf/hard of hearing youth- Prepare 180 adult youth leaders from diverse backgrounds including 4-H leaders, museum educators, amateur astronomers and teachers to facilitate SJS activities in a variety of settings.So, after three years of development, how is SJS actually working? In this paper we describe what it takes for a successful implementation of Skynet Junior Scholars, from the viewpoint of adult leaders in the trenches who work with youth at schools but in free-choice learning environments. What are the lessons learned in recruiting and engaging youth in observational astronomy projects when academic incentives like grades are no longer part of the equation? Stories and ideas will be presented from classroom teachers, informal educators and amateur astronomers who work with youth in this environment.Skynet Junior Scholars is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant Numbers 1223687, 1223235 and 1223345
Gender discrimination in physics and astronomy: Graduate student experiences of sexism and gender microaggressions
No full text[This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Gender in Physics.] Sexism occurs when men are believed to be superior to women, and is thought to be one of the reasons for women’s underrepresentation in physics and astronomy. The issue of sexism in physics and astronomy has not been thoroughly explored in the physics education literature and there is currently no clear language for discussing sexism in the field. This article seeks to begin a conversation on sexism in physics and astronomy and offer a starting point for language to discuss sexism in research groups and departments. Interviews with 21 women in graduate physics and astronomy programs are analyzed for their individual experiences of sexism. Although a subset of women did not report experiencing sexual discrimination, the majority experienced subtle insults and slights known as microaggressions. Other participants also experienced more traditional hostile sexism in the form of sexual harassment, gender role stereotypes, and overt discouragement. These results indicate the existence of sexism in the current culture of physics and astronomy, as well as the importance departments must put on eliminating it and educating students about sexism and microaggressions
Authentic Science Experiences: Pre-Collegiate Science Educators’ Successes And Challenges During Professional Development
No full textTwenty-three pre-collegiate educators of elementary students (ages 5-10 years) and secondary students (ages 11-18 years) attended a two-week science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) astronomy focused professional development in the summer of 2015 with activities focused on authentic science experiences, inquiry, and partnership building. ‘Authentic’ in this research refers to scientific skills and are defined. The study explores the authentic science education experience of the pre-collegiate educators, detailing the components of authentic science as seen through a social constructionism lens. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, the researchers analyzed the successes and challenges of pre-collegiate science and mathematics educators when immersed in STEM and astronomy authentic
science practices, the educators’ perceptions before and after the authentic science practices, and the educators’ performance on pre to post content tests during the authentic science practices. Findings show that the educators were initially engaged, then disengaged, and then finally re-engaged with the authentic experience. Qualitative responses are shared, as are the significant results of the quantitative pre to post content learning scores of the educators. Conclusions include the necessity for PD team delivery of detailed explanations to the participants - before, during, and after – for the entire authentic science experience and partnership building processes. Furthermore, expert structure and support is vital for participant research question generation, data collection, and data analysis (successes, failures, and reattempts). Overall, in order to include authentic science in pre-collegiate classrooms, elementary and secondary educators need experience, instruction, scaffolding, and continued support with the STEM processes
Recognition of Astronomy as an Essential Discipline at All Levels of Education in Tanzania
No full textWith decreasing interest in pursuing pure science programs, the onus is on Primary and Secondary schools to attract and maintain interest of students to pursue science subjects. Misunderstanding fundamental concepts leads to misconceptions about how processes work in nature. Many decades of teaching science to children without recourse to practical and hands on activities has led to disillusionment among learners that science is difficult to comprehend. It is discussed in this paper that this phenomenon is not restricted to the East African region but has also been documented and tackled in developed countries. It is proposed that introducing astronomy as a subject at all levels of education can revive interest in science and provide hands on
experiences that can assist to remove fundamental misconceptions about processes in nature
A Student-Centered Astronomical Research Community of Practice
No full textFor over a decade, students from Cuesta College and number of high schools have engaged in astronomical
research during one-term seminars. A community of practice—consisting of students, educators, and
astronomers—has formed that is centered on supporting the students’ astronomical research. The seminar has
recently adopted distance education technology and automated telescopes in a hybrid form of on-line and in person collaborations between students, educators, and astronomers. This hybridization is not only resulting in
new areas of growth and opportunity, but has created a number of challenges. For example, as more schools
joined this seminar, standardized teaching materials such as a textbook and self-paced, online learning units had
to be developed. Automated telescopes devoted to expanding student research opportunities within this
community of practice are being brought on line by Concordia University and the Boyce Research Initiatives and Educational Foundation. The Institute for Student Astronomical Research supports this growing community in
many ways including maintaining a website and editing books of student papers published through the Collins
Foundation Press
A New Comparison Of Active Learning Strategies To Traditional Lectures For Teaching College Astronomy
No full textAlthough traditional lectures are still the dominant form of undergraduate instruction, there have been relatively few studies comparing various learner-centered and active learning teaching strategies to one another in order to guide professors in making informed instructional decisions. To study the impact of different active learning approaches, pre-test to posttest learning gains for students receiving instruction on introductory astronomy solar system topics through a combination of collaborative learning activities and formative assessment-driven activities were compared to the gains of students being taught the same topics by traditional lectures only. After traditional lectures, students
improved from a pre-test score of 42% (n=144) to 49% (n=49). After lecture tutorials and classroom voting response systems improvement was to 73% (n=72) Using a multiple-group comparison approach, similar earning gains were also observed when using visual-assessment and tutorial activities. Moreover, data from a Likert-style attitude survey of 264 undergraduates showed that, although they did not report a clear preference for one instructional mode over the other, the majority of students believed that the active and collaborative nature of the activities helped them learn. The results of this study add weight to the notion that most modern pedagogies are superior to traditional lecture, and that although the relative impacts of particular pedagogies are mostly indistinguishable from one another, they are
all are better than traditional lecture alone
Measuring the tilt of the Earth's axis with the help of a plastic pipe and a piece of wood
No full textIn this project, a method that had been developed using a single setup was employed to correctly measure the tilt of the Earth's axis on 21 June 2015. The method is an easily comprehensible and applicable technique that can be used in elementary science and astronomy courses and understood by students of every age group