In this paper we are interested in the relationship between disciplinary knowledge and its representation. We carry out a social semiotic analysis of a central tool used in astronomy--the Hertzsprung-Russell (H-R) diagram--in order to highlight its disciplinary and pedagogical affordances. The H-R diagram that we know today combines many layers of…

An immense body of literature on astronomy studies has provided evidence that individuals perceive the lunar phases concept as difficult. Furthermore, many studies have shown erroneous explanations or alternative conceptions of lunar phases. However, there is also a need to understand how individuals construct an explanation of the Moon's phases.…

While new physics bachelor's degree holders have a breadth of possibilities open to them, the initial post-degree outcomes for physics bachelors generally fall into two main categories: entering the workforce or continuing their education at the graduate or professional level. About two-thirds of those continuing with their studies are enrolled in…

Cosmology presents students with ideas that stimulate their curiosity and brings together various concepts from STEM that call on a variety of reasoning types across multiple representational modes, involving subtleties of spacetime relations, a variety of models and evidence requiring multiple lines of high precision observations. This study…

The oscillating atmospheric CO[subscript 2] concentrations at Mauna Loa, on the island of Hawaii, Hawaii, United States of America, are Fourier transformed in order to extract the period of oscillations. Also well-known as the Keeling curve, CO[subscript 2] concentrations (in time series) at Mauna Loa oscillate in direct association with seasonal…

The research described here examined the sources of knowledge of astronomy of children (age 3-18) in China and New Zealand, together with the development of their awareness of competing sources, ranging from everyday language, childhood literature and folklore to the scientific accounts prevalent in schools. The authors cite examples of the…

In this paper, we describe a study of cosmic ray muon rates and energies at various elevations on Mauna Kea on the island of Hawaii. The study was originally conceived as an extension to the upper-division modern physics laboratory at the University of Hawaii at Hilo and used the TeachSpin Muon Physics apparatus (abbreviated TSMP below) from that…

In this work, an adaptation is developed of the first observation attempted by Galileo to demonstrate the heliocentric hypothesis to be correct. The objective is to enable students in their final year of elementary school to confront by themselves the same contradictory evidence that Galileo confronted during the second decade of the 17th century.…

We previously proposed a hypothetical learning progression around the disciplinary core idea of the Solar System and its formation as a first step in a research program to begin to fill this gap and address questions of student learning in this domain. In this study, we evaluate the effectiveness of two dimensions within the learning progression,…

Augmented Reality (AR) is now being used in education across various subjects. The number of AR applications has increased with the popularity of smartphones. In this study, we explore the use of AR-based apps for teaching astronomy in the last four years of secondary education in Spain. The study includes an experimental group and a control group…

Astronomy is seen as a "gateway" science, inspiring students to pursue Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics (STEM) related careers. However, there is little evidence that students' attitudes towards astronomy remain stable over time. By integrating Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), we identified…

Virtual reality (VR) technologies have the potential to transform astronomy education practices profoundly: new forms of visual representations, perceptual engagement and embodied participation promise authentic learning experiences in formal and informal learning spaces. While a growing body of research studies the educational needs and…

Seeking to make upper secondary school physics more relevant and engaging, an online collaborative learning curriculum was designed. Each of the curriculum's lessons was structured as a goal-based scenario about human scientists on Mars. Video and audio data from the curriculum's implementation in Denmark was collected. This study utilized the…

Solar eclipses are a rare phenomenon that everyone should have the opportunity to explore in depth. This article describes two programs developed by a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) outreach center with the goal of bringing the excitement of eclipses to all learners. The STEM outreach center collaborated with local…

The basic science knowledge and attitudes toward science have been compared for (1) adult free-choice learners in an astronomy online course or MOOC, (2) undergraduate non-science majors, and (3) professional scientists from graduate student to professor level. The adult MOOC learners have a higher level of science knowledge than the college…