iStarDB (The Astronomy Education Research Repository)
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Teaching to the Misconception: Critical Thinking and Pre-Service Elementary Teachers
No full textOver the past few decades, numerous studies have demonstrated that preservice and in-service teachers fall victim to the same misconceptions as the students they are or will be teaching. At the same time, research has shown that addressing the misconceptions head-on and leading students to a deep, personal understanding of why their previous conceptions were erroneous aids in replacement of misconceptions with an accurate understanding of the natural world. This paper demonstrates how this was accomplished in a required university-level Earth/space/physical science course for
pre-service elementary school teachers, with an emphasis on examples from the Sun–Earth–Moon system
Gaia Live in School
No full textGaia is the European Space Agency’s (ESA) next major astronomy telescope mission that was launched December 19, 2013. Gaia will measure accurate distances to about one billion stars across our Milky Way, allowing us to better understand how our galaxy formed and evolved. Gaia will have a profound impact on our understanding of the Universe and the nature of dark matter, and provide a deeper understanding of how planets form around stars in our local neighbourhood.
Gaia scientists and science education advisors are organising a Gaia post-launch event to link approximately forty schools across Europe. The event will include a live stream connection to ESA Gaia Mission Control and local Gaia research students to act as “explainers” and give practical demonstrations in each school. This paper describes the challenges in conducting this Europe-wide event
Development of the Astronomy-Themed Interdisciplinary Curriculum At Taipei First Girls’ High School
No full textWith the advent of satellite-based telescopes and abundant data open to the public, senior high school students can now be allowed access to the latest observational data collected by those cutting-edge telescopes. Following the official guidelines for high school curricula in Taiwan, we designed a 24-hour, four-module curriculum, the themes of which are: properties of light and spectra, multi-wavelength observations, evolution of stars, and introduction to cosmology. The curriculum makes use of free online astronomical databases, software for data analysis, and teaching platforms. Many of the courses are inquiry-oriented, focusing on hands-on experiments and discussions. They can be taught separately in their own fields or combined to form research project courses as well. The curriculum development was funded by the National Science Council of Taiwan (High Scope Project) and supported by three institutes in universities. More than 700 students are participating in the pilot program. We are now promoting the curriculum to other schools, with a hope to encourage students to carry out projects on topics in astronomy
EarthSpace: Resources for Undergraduate Teaching
No full textEarthSpace (http://www.lpi.usra.edu/earthspace/) is a national clearinghouse for information and resources for undergraduate faculty teaching planetary sciences, Earth sciences, astrophysics, and solar and space physics. Teaching materials include lectures, laboratory exercises, activities, homework assignments, and other resources. All materials are peer-reviewed and authors adhere to the Creative Commons Attribution (NC CC BY 3.0). Materials on the site are searchable by keyword, resource type, teaching topic, and author. Materials are cross-posted to other digital libraries online higher education communities. News and funding opportunities
are also emailed monthly in a newsletter via the community mailing list, HENews, and the RSS feed notifies members of new additions to the site. Instructors are invited to visit the site to search contributed materials, news, and opportunities, submit materials,
or volunteer to review submitted resources
A Study Of Undergraduate Students’ Alternative Conceptions Of Earth’s Interior Using Drawing Tasks
No full textLearning fundamental geoscience topics such as plate tectonics, earthquakes, and volcanoes requires students to develop a deep understanding of the conceptual models geologists use when describing the structure and dynamics of Earth’s interior. Despite the importance of these mental models underlying much of the undergraduate geoscience curriculum, surprisingly little research related to this complex idea exists in the discipline-based science education research literature. To better understand non-science-majoring undergraduates' conceptual models of Earth’s interior, student-generated drawings and interviews were used to probe student understanding of the Earth. Ninety-two semi-structured interviews were conducted with non-science-major college students at the beginning of an entry-level geology course at a large Midwestern university. Students were asked to draw a picture of Earth’s interior and provide think-aloud explanations of their drawings. The results reveal that students hold a wide range of alternative conceptions about Earth, with only a small fraction having scientifically accurate ideas. Students’ understandings ranged from conceptualizing Earth’s interior as consisting of horizontal layers of rock and dirt, to more sophisticated views with Earth’s interior being composed of concentric layers with unique physical and chemical characteristics. Processes occurring within Earth, such as "convection," were rarely mentioned or explained. These results provide a first-steps basis from which to further explore college students’ thinking and contribute to the growing body of knowledge on earth science teaching and geoscience education research
Is The Dark Side Of The Moon Ever Illuminated By The Sun?
No full textThis work presents the elaboration of an answer to the question "Is the dark side of the moon ever illuminated by the sun?”, in which issues related to the students' conceptions, how they arise, and the core elements that constitute a "good answer" are considered. These issues are initially elaborated from a literature review of the research in the field; then, and also based on this review, a didactic model that involves the relative motions of the Earth - Moon - Sun system is proposed. A description of the application of this model in a learning environment within middle school students is described. This work confirms the students' initial concepts described in the literature; on the other hand, the questions asked by students during the activity provide evidence that meaningful learning, at least to some degree, has occurred
Reflections On Ten Years Of RELEA: Latin-American Journal Of Astronomy Education
No full textProfessor Paulo Bretones has asked me to write an article, reflecting on the first ten years of RELEA (Latin-American Journal of Astronomy Education), and I am pleased and honoured to do so. For over 30 years, I was active in the International Astronomical Union's Commission 46 (Education and Development), and I served as President in 1994-1997. I was also active in many other international science and education organizations, and enjoyed traveling to meet my “kindred spirits” in other countries. Professor Bretones was one of them
The Reflective Abstraction Theory and the History of Astronomy
No full textThis work is presented as a theoretical essay on some facts from the history of astronomy analyzed according to the theory of reflective abstraction developed by Jean Piaget and collaborators (1970). Its aim is to understand the reasons that led to different astronomers, at the same historical period and culture, to "see" quite different evidences about the same phenomenon. In addition, we intend to facilitate the understanding of science as a human construction, subject to a time epoch and the ways of understanding of each scientist
Teaching Undergraduate Astrophysics With PIRATE
No full textPIRATE is a 0.43m semi-autonomous research and teaching observatory owned by The Open University, UK. Since 2010, it has been reserved for several months of each year for teaching astronomy in the OU’s undergraduate programme. As students in these courses operate PIRATE remotely rather than travelling to the observatory itself, we chose to investigate whether effective learning was adversely affected by the absence of a more traditional ‘hands on’ experience. We discuss student perspectives on the technologies employed (i.e., remote and virtual investigations), the impact these had on perceived course outcomes, and consider implications for future teaching and outreach
Personal Space - Linking You With The Rest Of The World Through The Universe
No full textThe GLORIA project aims to bring astronomy to anyone with an Internet connection, by making a global network of robotic telescopes available for use by the public. But being given the opportunity to observe anywhere in the universe is a bit like being faced with a blank canvas – where do you start? ‘Personal Space’ is a response to this challenge that emerged from an art-science collaboration between an astronomer and an artist