The present research investigates the perceptions of kindergarten students, and pre-service teachers from the Early Childhood Education Department at the University of Athens, concerning the frequency of the Moon's appearance in the night sky. ?he sample consisted of 15 people from each population group. Semi-structured interviews were conducted…

Contribution: This article presents a Mars Exploration Control Virtual Simulation Experiment Platform (MEC-vslab), which aims to address the current challenge of limited integration between control engineering education and engineering practice. MEC-vslab is oriented toward the practical needs of Mars exploration engineering. It offers…

Historically, physics has been a predominantly male field, with previous literature showing that there is little diversity among U.S. physics students at the undergraduate and graduate levels or among physicists within the work force. Recent research indicates that the lack of diversity in physics is partially due to an unwelcoming climate within…

In 2017, the University of Utah experienced a tragedy that accelerated already proposed changes to the physics and astronomy graduate program. This article outlines the changes made to the graduate program and discusses students' experiences with the early implementation of the new policies. In-depth, open-ended interviews were conducted with…

Recently, Virtual reality (VR) technologies have started to be used increasingly in the field of education, as in many other fields. With the widespread use of virtual reality applications, there is a need to investigate the effects of virtual reality applications in the field of education. The results obtained from these researches can contribute…

Most students have interacted with scientific representations that are used as teaching resources in schools. Often these external representations present challenges for understanding. By utilizing a framework based on an inferential, epistemic approach to scientific representations, we have analyzed students' representational constructions of the…

The aim of this study is to develop a valid and reliable astronomy attitude scale for secondary school students. The method of this research is a scale development study. The study group of the research consists of 300 students studying in 3 different secondary schools in Turkey in the first semester of the 2022-2023 academic year. A 32-item…

This study explores the potential of QR code technology in enhancing preservice science teachers' understanding of astronomy topics and their views on the Nature of Science (NOS). Using QR codes, the study focused on teaching complex concepts like the Kuiper Belt, dwarf planets, and Pluto's reclassification, while fostering an explicit and…

As science educators, we have an important opportunity to influence perceptions of who does science, and we can work to empower students to make our disciplines more accessible to people of all backgrounds. This goal was explicitly built into an introductory college astronomy course through the theme of "Who Speaks for Earth?"…

Technology has an essential role in the educational field. Technology-based mobile has the potential to improve education through Augmented Reality (AR). This study investigates the effect of mobile augmented reality on physics learning achievement and students' opinions on using this technology. The study used a convergent parallel pattern from…

Fully online courses and degree programs are popular with students. These courses should provide the rigor and value of traditional learning in a face-to-face classroom to ensure mastery of concepts and learning objectives. This research expands previous work to investigate the effectiveness of online laboratory exercises in enhancing student…

Concept maps are the tools used to facilitate meaningful conceptual learning. In this study, an augmented reality (AR)-based concept map (AR-ConMAP) application was developed to facilitate the concept map creation process to overcome the challenges that students face when creating concept maps. The study was carried out as a case study.…

Research in astronomy education has uncovered that many learners possess limited and fragmented understanding of stars. The corresponding misconceptions manifest in various areas such as star formation, size, the relationship between stars and planets, and their position in space and have been shown to persist across different age groups and…

This paper explores how public and student engagement with NASA's Lucy Mission--targeting the Jupiter Trojan asteroids affects informal science learning, interest in planetary science, and youth engagement with space-related careers. Through a mixed-methods study including surveys, observational data, and analysis of public outreach campaigns, we…

A multidisciplinary origami activity that could be used in middle school mathematics and science lessons was designed and implemented. Mathematical purpose of the origami activity is to support students' conceptual understanding and procedural skills related to the concept of fraction. Regarding science, the activity aims to visualize Solar system…