Astronomy Education Journal

Bringing Lecture-Tutorials Online: An Analysis of A New Strategy to Teach Planet Formation in the Undergraduate Classroom

Haylee N. Archer — 2024-09-20

Previous studies conclusively show that pencil-and-paper lecture-tutorials (LTs) are incredibly effective at increasing student engagement and learning gains on a variety of topics when compared to traditional lecture. LTs in astronomy are post-lecture activities developed with the intention of helping students engage with conceptual and reasoning difficulties around a specific topic with the end goal of them developing a more expert-like understanding of astrophysical concepts. To date, all astronomy LTs have been developed for undergraduate courses taught in-person. Increases in online course enrollments and the COVID-19 pandemic further highlighted the need for additional interactive, research-based, curricular materials designed for online classrooms. To this end, we developed and assessed the efficacy of an innovative, interactive LT designed to teach planet formation in asynchronous, online, introductory astronomy courses for undergraduates. We utilized the Planet Formation Concept Inventory to compare learning outcomes between courses that implemented the new online, interactive LT, and those that used either a lecture-only approach or utilized a standard pencil-and-paper LT on the same topic. Overall, learning gains from the standard pencil-and-paper LT were statistically indistinguishable from the in-person implementation of the online LT and both of these conditions outperformed the lecture-only condition. However, when implemented asynchronously, learning gains from the online LT were lower and not significantly above the lecture-only condition. While improvements can be made to improve the online LT in the future, the current discipline ideas still outperform traditional lecture, and can be used as a tool to teach planet formation effectively.

Representations of Astronomy in Children’s Picture Books

Julia Plummer — 2024-09-20

This study examines how astronomy is portrayed in children’s picture books, selected from notable book lists, published between 2001-2021. Selected books (N=32) were analyzed in terms of how they portray the practices of science, using the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) as a framework. We also analyzed the gender, age, and race of the main characters. Few books among the selection portrayed characters engaged in a scientific investigation, and many of the books had scientific inaccuracies in the story and/or illustrations. NGSS science practices appeared in less than half of the selected books, and this was primarily the practice of asking questions. The main characters were close to evenly split between male and female, and most main characters were children. When the selection of books from Diverse Book Finder was included, the racial background of human main characters was close to even between white and persons of color. However, without Diverse Book Finder, racial diversity in the sample was greatly reduced. Currently, astronomy picture books provide limited support for the Next Generation Science Standards in terms of how they convey science practices. In addition, teachers may have difficulty locating books that portray racially diverse characters engaged in astronomical phenomena.

A board game ludography analysis for Game-Based Learning in Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Science

Giannandrea Inchingolo — 2024-09-20

Space exploration and astronomical objects are extensively used in modern board games. These games can be an entertaining way to present educational contents on Astrophysics-related topics, by acknowledging the importance and beauty of Space. However, careful consideration of mechanics, messages, and themes is required to achieve this goal. We present a classification system for the presence of Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Space Science in the 2000 most popular modern board games, where games are categorised according to their complexity and actual scientific contents. This initial mapping defines a potential Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Science ludography, i.e. a set of board games for STEM educators to create learning activities about such topics, using easily attainable commercial products.

How Do Observational Astronomers Learn to Inspect Imaging Data

Hugo Walsh — 2024-09-20

Astronomy is entering an unprecedented era of data collection. Upcoming large surveys will gather more data than ever before, generated at rates requiring real-time decision making. Looking ahead, it is inevitable that astronomers will need to rely more heavily on automated processes. Indeed, some instances have already arisen wherein the majority of the inspection process is automated. Visual discovery, performed traditionally by humans, is one key area where automation is now being integrated rapidly. Visual discovery comprises two aspects: (1) visual inspection, the skill associated with examining an image to identify areas or objects of interest; and (2) visual interpretation, the knowledge associated with the classification of the objects or features. Both skills and knowledge are vital for humans to perform visual discovery, however, there appears to have been limited investigation into how the skill of visual inspection in astronomy is acquired. In this work, we address this issue by setting out to identify the landscape within which observational astronomers develop the skills to perform visual inspection. We report on a survey of 70 professional observational astronomers, at various career stages and from different geographical regions. We found that between 63%and 73% of the astronomers surveyed had received formal and/or informal training in visual inspection of images, although formal training (21%) was less common than informal training (60%). Surprisingly, out of the 37% who did not recall having received training in visual inspection, 29% (20 astronomers) indicated that they provided training to others. This suggests the emergence of ``expertise without precedent'' where a first expert in the field provides a new way of achieving a task. These results, paired with a set of three pilot interviews, present a touchstone against which the training of future observational astronomers can be compared.

A descriptive overview of English-language publications in the field of Astronomy Education Research, 1898 to 2022

Saeed Salimpour — 2024-09-20

Discipline-based education research (DBER) takes the theories and methodologies of education research and applies them in the context of a specific discipline, in this example, astronomy. Research in the teaching and learning of astronomy has an extensive history; astronomy education research (AER), as its own separately defined field, is relatively new, stemming from the early to mid-1990s, as a separate track from physics education research (PER). By using a mixed-methods approach to textual analysis considering 2085 English language publications in the field, an order of magnitude larger than the previous largest overviews of the field, this study paints a rich picture of the landscape of AER over the timespan of a century from 1898 to 2022.

This paper finds that AER authors started regularly publishing around 1970 and took off significantly in the 1990s with journal articles (~50%) and conference proceedings (~30%) being the most common method of publication. AER, in its early era, was largely a USA endeavour dominated by ASTRO101. This has changed over time and in recent years, the USA has dropped below 50\% of the worldwide AER publication production. “Celestial Motion”, “Instrumentation/Techniques”, and “Planetary Sciences (not Exoplanets)” are the most common content foci while a significant lack of local galactic and extragalactic education research is identified. AER has been heavily focussed on “Content Knowledge”, “Affective”, and “Engagement”. It is found that most articles tend to be general reporting of approaches or results (~43%) rather than full empirical research (~36%) while there is very little theoretical or historical research in AER yet.

This overview, based on results input to an online database (istardb.org), provides a resource to researchers, educators, and other interested stakeholders allowing efficient ascertainment of previous research. This supports both researchers, allowing them to develop research questions at the cutting edge of the field, as well as practitioners, to inform their pragmatic approach based on latest research findings. We also present a set of recommendations and future outlook of the field of Astronomy Education Research.

A Pilot Study from A Course-Based Undergraduate Research Experience for Online Degree-Seeking Astronomy Students

Justin Hom — 2024-09-20

Research-based active learning approaches are critical for the teaching and learning of undergraduate STEM majors. Course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) are becoming more commonplace in traditional, in-person academic environments, but have only just started to be utilized in online education. Online education has been shown to create accessible pathways to knowledge for individuals from nontraditional student backgrounds, and increasing the diversity of STEM fields has been identified as a priority for future generations of scientists and engineers. We developed and instructed a rigorous, six-week curriculum on the topic of observational astronomy, dedicated to educating second year online astronomy students in practices and techniques for astronomical research. Throughout the course, the students learned about telescopes, the atmosphere, filter systems, adaptive optics systems, astronomical catalogs, and image viewing/processing tools.

We developed a survey informed by previous research validated assessments aimed to evaluate course feedback, course impact, student self-efficacy, student science identity and community values, and student sense of belonging. The survey was administered at the conclusion of the course to all eleven students yielding eight total responses. Although preliminary, the results of our analysis indicate that students’ confidence in utilizing the tools and skills taught in the course was significant. Students also felt a great sense of belonging to the astronomy community and increased confidence in conducting astronomical research in the future.