iStarDB (The Astronomy Education Research Repository)
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A Study On 3D-Virtual Reality In Science Education Programs: “Solar System And Beyond: Space Puzzle” Unit Sample
No full textIn this study it is aimed to examine the effects of three dimensional visual materials provided by virtual reality software on seventh grade students’ retention and success on astronomy subjects in science and technology lessons. In accordance with this aim, worksheets that are compatible with virtual reality software are developed in order to help seventh grade students to structure astronomy subjects better in their mind. Prepared worksheets using virtual reality software were administered to seventh grade students with average socio-economic level in a chosen Primary school in Aydın. The model of the study is Pre-test/Post-test control group design. Study group is composed of 60 students; 30 students in the experimental group and 30 students in control group. Astronomy achievement test composed of 20 items and has .73 reliability level was applied to the study group as pretest before the study, posttest after the study and retention test three months after the study. In order to identify whether there is a significant difference between experimental and control group according to the applied method “two way ANOVA for mixed measures” was used. One way ANOVA analysis for related samples was done in order to identify the effects of practices done with the help of virtual reality software and teaching done without any change in practice on retention. At the end of the study it was seen that at the end of education given using virtual reality software experimental group students’ academic success increased more than control group students’ success. It was found out that instruction given using virtual reality software was more effective
Research, Education, and Outreach at the Oakley Observatories
No full textRose-Hulman Institute of Technology is a four-year college specializing in undergraduate engineering, science and mathematics education. Rose students have a strong interest in anything space-related. In the early days of the space age, Rose established a campus observatory to collect data on man-made satellites. In 2000, a new observatory was completed and named the Oakley Observatory. The new observatory was designed primarily for education and outreach, but we have successfully used it for minor planet astrometry, and photometry of minor planets and variable stars. Rose-Hulman students have discovered 33 main belt asteroids. Faculty, Rose students, and local high school students have worked together to publish more than 350 minor planet lightcurves. To supplement the campus observatory, The Oakley Southern Sky Observatory was completed in
2007 near Siding Spring in New South Wales, Australia. OSSO makes it possible to observe the southern sky,
and it has much less cloud cover, as well as, significantly darker skies than our campus. Rose-Hulman offers an area minor in astronomy and all of the astronomy courses are available to all majors as technical electives. Classes are normally filled to capacity. Finally, we also use the campus observatory for public outreach. We host scout troops, school classes and many other types of groups who want to look through a telescope. We also hold public open houses for special astronomical events such as the transit of Venus
Do Students Prefer Their Own Images to Professional Ones? Using Internet-Based Robotic Telescopes to Engage Non-Science Majors in Astronomical Observation
No full textThis study seeks to answer the question "To what extent do students prefer an astronomical image that they have taken themselves compared to an image of the same object taken by a professional telescope or spacecraft?" Recent work to develop authentic research experiences for astronomy courses assumes the answer is "yes". This assumption is based on "gut feelings" that students naturally prefer an image over which they can claim some level of ownership. To effectively move forward, this question should be more definitely studied. Using an interpretivist perspective, and pre-/post-activity surveys/interviews, this study involves undergraduate non-science majors enrolled in on-ground or online introductory astronomy courses using Internet-based robotic telescopes (MicroObservatory), and performing basic processing to stack the images into an RGB image. Student responses varied considerably depending on how the question was posed, motivating us to further explore our tacit assumptions about student affect
Children's Concepts of the Shape and Size of the Earth, Sun and Moon
No full textChildren's understandings of the shape and relative sizes of the Earth, Sun and Moon have been extensively researched and in a variety of ways. Much is known about the confusions which arise as young people try to grasp ideas about the world and our neighbouring celestial bodies. Despite this, there remain uncertainties about the conceptual models which young people use and how they theorise in the process of acquiring more scientific conceptions. In this article, the relevant published research is reviewed critically and in-depth in order to frame a series of investigations using semi-structured interviews carried out with 248 participants aged 3–18 years from China and New Zealand. Analysis of qualitative and quantitative data concerning the reasoning of these subjects (involving cognitive categorisations and their rank ordering) confirmed that (a) concepts of Earth shape and size are embedded in a ‘super-concept’ or ‘Earth notion’ embracing ideas of physical shape, ‘ground’ and ‘sky’, habitation of and identity with Earth; (b) conceptual development is similar in cultures where teachers hold a scientific world view and (c) children's concepts of shape and size of the Earth, Sun and Moon can be usefully explored within an ethnological approach using multi-media interviews combined with observational astronomy. For these young people, concepts of the shape and size of the Moon and Sun were closely correlated with their Earth notion concepts and there were few differences between the cultures despite their contrasts. Analysis of the statistical data used Kolmogorov–Smirnov Two-Sample Tests with hypotheses confirmed at K–S alpha level 0.05; rs : p < 0.01
Exploring Verbal, Visual and Schematic Learners' Static and Dynamic Mental Images of Scientific Species and Processes in Relation to Their Spatial Ability
No full textThe current study compared different learners’ static and dynamic mental images of unseen scientific species and processes in relation to their spatial ability. Learners were classified into verbal, visual and schematic. Dynamic images were classified into: appearing/disappearing, linear-movement, and rotation. Two types of scientific entities and their related processes were investigated: astronomical and microscopic. The sample included 79 female students from Grades 9 and 10. For the purpose of the study, three instruments were used. The Mental Images by Guided Imagery instrument was designed to investigate participants' visualization of static and dynamic mental images. The Water-Level Task was adopted to estimate participants' spatial ability. The Learning Styles Inventory was used to classify participants into verbal, visual and schematic learners. The research findings suggest that schematic learners outperformed verbal and visual learners in their spatial ability. They also outperformed them in their vividness of microscopic images; both micro-static and micro-dynamic images; especially in the case of appearing/disappearing images. The differences were not significant in the case of astronomical images. The results also indicate that appearing/disappearing images received the least vividness scores for all three types of learner
An Augmented Reality Environment for Astronomy Learning in Elementary Grades: An Exploratory Study
No full textThis paper describes an ongoing research comparing two 3D astronomical tangible models: an Augmented Reality model versus a physical model. According to IBSE principles, learners should investigate and manipulate in order to become conscious of the origin of astronomical phenomena, construct scientific knowledge and change their misconceptions. In primary French schools, physical models are usually used. However, children do not take advantage of these models and form new synthetic models instead of scientific ones. We aim at providing an adapted pedagogical environment support. An Augmented Reality environment was designed for inquiry-based learning. This tangible AR model shows augmented views of the celestial bodies and supports the pupils' investigations using spatial visual guides and views from a terrestrial observer. The AR model not only exposes the phenomena as in several Virtual Environments, but also allows pupils to virtually move the celestial bodies and test "as for real" their hypotheses. Our results show that the AR environment is particularly suitable for astronomy learning compared to the physical one. Only AR users have developed scientific conceptions of the explored astronomical phenomena and learnings have been significantly improved. Furthermore, we present some arguments in order to support the assumption that the AR model assists the process of scaffolding and motivation dynamic by enhancing task controllability and by promoting collaborative learning
What do teachers of astronomy need to think about?
No full textLearning astronomy has exciting prospects for many students; learning about the stars in the sky, the planets, galaxies, etc., is often very inspiring and sets the mind on the really big aspects of astronomy as a science; the Universe. At the same time, learning astronomy can be a challenging endeavor for many students. One of the most difficult things to come to understand is how big the Universe is. Despite seeming trivial, size and distances, together with the three-dimensional (3D) structure of the Universe, probably present some of the biggest challenges in the teaching and learning of astronomy (Eriksson, Linder, Airey, & Redfors, in preparation; Lelliott & Rollnick, 2010). This is the starting point for every astronomy educator. From here, an educationally critical question to ask is: how can we best approach the teaching of astronomy to optimize the potential for our students attaining a holistic understanding about the nature of the Universe? Resent research indicates that to develop students’ understanding about the structure of the Universe, computer generated 3D simulations can be used to provide the students with an experience that other representations cannot easily provide (Eriksson et al., in preparation; Joseph, 2011). These simulations offer disciplinary affordance* through the generation of motion parallax for the viewer. Using this background we will present the results of a recent investigation that we completed looking at what students’ discern (notice with meaning) about the multidimensionality of the Universe. Implications for astronomy education will be discussed and exemplified
Navigating Deep Time: Landmarks for Time From the Big Bang to the Present
No full textPeople make sense of the world by comparing and relating new information to their existing landmarks. Each individual may have different landmarks, developed through idiosyncratic experiences. Identifying specific events that constitute landmarks for a group of learners may help instructors in gauging students' prior knowledge and in planning instruction that helps students build additional landmarks events. This paper proposes an operationalized definition for collective landmarks based on importance, accuracy, and precision. Including precision in the definition allows landmarks to be characterized for a group rather than an individual. This study evaluated the ability of undergraduate students in an interdisciplinary course to estimate scales of time related to major cosmological, geological, and historical events. Individual students responded to replicate questions in different formats with the same answers, indicating the testing format was valid. The students' estimates were then used to determine collective landmarks. The number of collective landmarks increased between the pretest and posttest. Collective landmarks included extremely ancient events (Big Bang, formation of the solar system) or relatively recent ones (Cold War, the age of empires, emergence of nation states). Intermediate events had low accuracy, low precision, or both. These data indicate that lecture courses can teach students collective landmarks for time. Because landmarks can be learned, geoscience programs might consider coordinated planning of key landmarks to be introduced at different stages of their academic programs
“The Constellations Were In A Different Place”: Using Blogs To Understand Student Learning During Study Abroad
No full textWhile a great deal of research has been done on the pedagogical implications and uses of blogging, and even more research has been done on the effects of study abroad, few studies has investigated the use of blogging as a way that learning is processed during study abroad. This study sought to understand how students use blogs during a study abroad semester and the ways in which the blogs reveal evidence of learning. Eleven blogs, written by students at the University of South Carolina (USC) during their respective semesters abroad, were read, coded, and analyzed in order to answer the research questions. Nine major themes of learning emerged: culture, food, travel, transportation, language, academics, people, reflection, and acknowledgement of learning. These written experiences were then compared with the known effects of study abroad, and also juxtaposed with the USC Study Abroad Learning Outcomes. Based on what is already known about student learning during study abroad and on USC’s Study Abroad Learning Outcomes, it was revealed that study abroad students write extensively and in surprising ways about their learning experiences on their personal blogs. Blogs may offer an alternative to the post-study abroad evaluations, instead capturing the student learning as it is occurring during the crux of the study abroad journey, and allowing researchers to see the context of the learning experiences
The Design, Enactment, And Impact Of An Undergraduate, Inquiry- Based, Astronomy Laboratory Learning Environment
No full textThis study investigated the design, enactment, and impact of an undergraduate, inquiry-based astronomy laboratory learning environment. The professor, Richard, adopted laboratory materials from the Center for Astronomy and Physics Education Research [CAPER] which were described by the group as inquiry-based. Students worked through these laboratory materials under the supervision of teaching assistants [TAs], and Richard led weekly TA meetings to monitor and instruct the TAs on his expectations. This study suggests that Richard was unsure of laboratory materials’ learning goals and had received limited guidance on how to use and implement CAPER’s materials. TAs also received limited guidance on how to interact with their students while they worked through the laboratory materials. TAs gave introductions during laboratory sessions that were similar to Richard’s introductions given during weekly TA meetings. Data from this study suggests that most students were able to easily complete the laboratory materials without the assistance of their TA. When students did ask questions, questions were focused on obtaining the correct answer which TAs normally supplied though direct responses or questioning. This laboratory learning environment was found to have no impact on students’ understanding of the nature of scientific inquiry, as measured by VOSI, which contradicts previous research findings associated with the materials. I suggest that professors should be cautious when adopting curriculum materials. Curriculum designers should provide information related to the design of their materials, the learning goals of those materials, sample student responses, and effective implementation strategies