iStarDB (The Astronomy Education Research Repository)
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2071 research outputs found
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Down to Earth: Armageddon in the Classroom
No full textThe “Down to Earth” educational program developed from a popular series of schools’ talks and workshops delivered to 11–18 year old school students in the U.K. The project now has a variety of online educational resources, including the “Impact Calculator” Flash tool, which uses research code to allow students to create their own virtual impactors and then target (via Google Maps) any point on the Earth’s surface. These online tools and activities are now being linked with an active telescope
observing program, being undertaken with the two 2-meter Faulkes Telescopes, and in collaboration with both amateur and professional astronomers from Europe and the U.S
Exploring the Hidden Structure of Astronomical Images: A “Pixelated” View of Solar System and Deep Space Features!
No full textWe describe activities created to help student participants in Project ITEAMS (Innovative Technology-Enabled Astronomy for Middle Schools) develop a deeper understanding of picture elements (pixels), image creation, and analysis of the recorded data. ITEAMS is an out-of-school time (OST) program funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) with the goal of inspiring grades 5–8 students to pursue ICT (Information and Communications Technology) and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) careers and increasing their 21st century work skills. ITEAMS students access our department's MicroObservatory, online telescopes from home and school to request solar system and deep space images taken during the nighttime hours, and then receive an email the next morning notifying them their requested images are available for retrieval. Once retrieved, students use the project software to process the images. We found image processing became more meaningful when students developed some understanding of what a pixel is, what causes different saturation levels of the pixels, and the nature of the data stored in the pixels. We developed a set of hands-on explorations for students to investigate pixels, sensors, and data transmission. Anecdotal evidence suggests students increased their understanding of the nature of pixels, the underlying technology, how the data are transmitted, and a better sense of how processing astronomical images changes the way data are represented but does not change the data itself
Using technology to support science inquiry learning
No full textThis paper presents a case study of a teacher’s experience in implementing an inquiry approach to his teaching over a period of two years with two different classes. His focus was on using a range of information technologies to support student inquiry learning. The study demonstrates the need to consider the characteristics of students when implementing an inquiry approach, and also the influence of the teachers level of understanding and related confidence in such an approach. The case also indicated that a range of technologies can be effective in supporting student inquiry learning
A New Online Astronomy Resource for Education and Outreach
No full textA new web site called Teach Astronomy (http://www.teachastronomy.com) has been created to serve astronomy instructors and their students, amateur astronomers, and members of the public interested in astronomy. The content includes an online textbook of 400 000 words and 1200 images, 40 000 articles from Wikipedia, over 1100 video clips covering all topics in astronomy, over 6300 images from Astronomy Picture of the Day and AstroPix, over 1400 podcasts from 365 Days of Astronomy, and 25–30 astronomy news stories each week from Science Daily. All these resources are navigable by a keyword search and via a unique visual interface called a Wikimap, which presents the items clustered by degree of keyword overlap and allows surfing among related items. The site can serve as a replacement for a textbook and as an information resource for formal and informal learners. Future development includes building an instructor and learner community and creating homework assignments that utilize different content areas within Teach Astronomy
The Effect of Media on Preservice Science Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Astronomy and Achievement in Astronomy Class
No full textStudies show that it is hard to change students’ attitudes toward science. This study specifically explored if media affect preservice science teachers’ attitudes toward astronomy and their astronomy achievement. The sample for the pilot study consisted of 196 preservice science and mathematics teachers for attitude assessment and 230 preservice science and mathematics teachers for achievement test. The participants of the main study were 88 preservice science teachers for attitude assessment and 82 preservice science teachers for achievement test. Survey of Attitudes toward Astronomy was used for attitudes assessment. In addition, the researcher developed the Astronomy Concept Test (AstroCoT) to test preservice science teachers’ astronomy achievement.
Pre-post design was used in the current study. The results showed no significant differences between groups for attitudes and achievement. There were no means effects of media on preservice science teachers’ attitudes toward astronomy and achievement in astronomy class. However, preservice science teachers’ attitudes toward astronomy and achievement in astronomy both improved significantly within each group (with or without media). Even though media was not apparently the reason for the significant changes, it is notable that the preservice science teachers did develop positive attitudes toward astronomy and also increased their achievement in astronomy
Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network
No full textLas Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope (LCOGT) is a young organization dedicated to timedomain observations at optical and (potentially) near-IR wavelengths. To this end, LCOGT is constructing a worldwide network of telescopes, including the two 2 m Faulkes telescopes, as many as 17 × 1 m telescopes, and as many as 23 × 40 cm telescopes. These telescopes initially will be outfitted for imaging and (excepting the 40 cm telescopes) spectroscopy at wavelengths between the atmospheric UV cutoff and the roughly 1-μm limit of silicon detectors. Since the first of LCOGT’s 1 m telescopes are now being deployed, we lay out here LCOGT’s scientific goals and the requirements that these goals place on network architecture and performance, we summarize the network’s present and projected level of development, and we describe our expected schedule for completing it. In the bulk of the paper, we describe in detail the technical approaches that we have adopted to attain desired performance. In particular, we discuss our choices for the number and location of network sites, for the number and
sizes of telescopes, for the specifications of the first generation of instruments, for the software that will schedule and control the network’s telescopes and reduce and archive its data, and for the structure of the scientific and educational programs for which the network will provide observations
Development of the Newtonian Gravity Concept Inventory
No full textWe introduce the Newtonian Gravity Concept Inventory (NGCI), a 26-item multiple-choice instrument to assess introductory general education college astronomy (“Astro 101”) student understanding of Newtonian gravity. This paper describes the development of the NGCI through four phases: Planning, Construction, Quantitative Analysis, and Validation. We discuss the evolution of the instrument through three versions, including the refinement of a set of four concept domains and nine examples of items to illustrate how expert review, student interviews, and Classical Test Theory statistics informed our approach. We conclude that the NGCI is a reliable and valid instrument
The Astronomy Club of Araranguá: Educating Science Teachers as Science Communicators
No full textThe study reported in this work takes place since 2009 at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Santa Catarina, Campus Araranguá. Our main goal is to help form teachers, training undergraduate students in Natural Sciences with specialization in Physics as science communicators, as well as to promote actions of broader scientific popularization in the region of the town of Araranguá through an Astronomy Club called CA2. Among the actions of scientific popularization that the students promote are: video production, radio broadcasts, lectures, nightly
observations, preparation and exhibition of posters, physics teaching for children, continuing education
activities for teachers and regular physics teaching using Astronomy as a theme. The Club's teacher education and scientific dissemination work is based on the Theory of Meaningful Learning, always trying to reach the student's predisposition to learn and produce potentially meaningful material, the two essential conditions for meaningful learning to occur
Do You Always Need a Textbook to Teach Astro 101?
No full textThe increasing use of interactive learning [IL] strategies in Astro 101 classrooms has led some instructors to consider the usefulness of a textbook in such classes. These strategies provide students a learning modality very different from the traditional lecture supplemented by reading a textbook and homework and raise the question of whether the learning that takes place during such interactive activities is enough by itself to teach students what we wish them to know about astronomy. To address this question, assessment data are presented from an interactive class, which was first taught with a required textbook, and then with the textbook being optional. Comparison of test scores before and after this change shows no statistical difference in student achievement whether a textbook is required or not. In addition, comparison of test scores of students who purchased the textbook to those who did not, after the textbook became optional, also show no statistical difference between the two groups. The Light and Spectroscopy Concept Inventory (LSCI; Bardar et al. 2007), a research-validated assessment tool, was given pre-instruction and postinstruction to three classes that had a required textbook, and one for which the textbook was optional, and the results demonstrate that the student learning gains on this central topic were statistically indistinguishable between the two groups. Finally, the Star Properties Concept Inventory (SPCI), another research-validated assessment tool, was administered to a class for which the textbook was optional, and the class performance was higher than that of a group of classes in a national study (Bailey et al. 2011). Taken together, these results suggest that, if research-tested alternative learning modalities are provided, students’ ability to learn the content of an Astronomy 101 course can be independent of a textbook requirement. Details on the course and the methodology used to reach this conclusion are presented
Using NASA Data in the Classroom: Promoting STEM Learning in Formal Education using Real Space Science Data
No full textAmong NASA's major education goals is the training of students in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) disciplines. The use of real data, from some of the most sophisticated observatories in the world, provides formal educators the opportunity to teach their students real-world applications of the STEM subjects. Combining real space science data with lessons aimed at meeting state and national education standards provides a memorable educational experience that students can build upon throughout their academic careers. Many of our colleagues have adopted the use of real data in their education and public outreach (EPO) programs. There are challenges in creating resources using real data for classroom use that include, but are not limited to, accessibility to computers/Internet and proper instruction. Understanding and sharing these difficulties and best practices with the larger EPO community is critical to the development of future resources. In this session, we highlight three examples of how NASA data is being utilized in the classroom: the Galaxies and Cosmos Explorer Tool (GCET) that utilizes real Hubble Space Telescope data; the computer image-analysis resources utilized by the NASA WISE infrared mission; and the space science derived math applications from SpaceMath@NASA featuring the Chandra and Kepler space telescopes. Challenges and successes are highlighted for these projects. We also facilitate small-group discussions that focus on additional benefits and challenges of using real data in the formal education environment. The report-outs from those discussions are given here