For most of history, humans have been watching the night-sky (Hawkins, 1983). Historically, individuals have watched the night-sky for aesthetic appreciation and to gain insights and knowledge (Brecher & Feirtag, 1979). Despite the long history of night-sky watching among humans and the apparent importance of the behavior to large groups of…

Models are crucial to science teaching and learning, yet they can create unforeseen and overlooked challenges for students and teachers. For example, consider the time-tested clay volcano that relies on a vinegar and-baking-soda mixture for its "eruption." Based on a classroom demonstration of that geologic model, elementary students may interpret…

The Moon's cycle of phases is one of the most familiar natural phenomena, yet also one of the most misunderstood. This probably comes as no surprise, but research has found that a significant segment of the population, including both elementary students and teachers, mistakenly believes that the Moon's phases are caused by the shadow of the Earth.…

The authors teach an astronomy unit in their seventh-grade course that they find never fails to motivate and stretch the imagination. The questions students ask are wonder-full: "What was here before the universe?" "If there was nothing before the Big Bang, where did energy and matter come from?" "Does the universe have a boundary, and if it does,…

It is so obvious that the sky is blue in the daytime and black at night, but it took the smartest humans thousands of years of observation, thought, discussion, conjecture, and analysis to finally come up with answers that make scientific sense as to why the sky is these colors. This article discusses light and the scientific research…

Children and teachers find understanding the solar system, especially how the motion of the Earth and Moon causes seasons and tides, difficult. Often, within a group, each person knows part of the "right explanation" but no one can put these parts together on their own. In this article, the author recounts how her group of PGCE (Postgraduate…

Leon Foucault's dramatic demonstration of the rotation of the Earth using a freely-rotating pendulum in 1850 shocked the world of science. Scientists were stunned that such a simple proof of our planet's rotation had to wait so long to be developed. Foucault's public demonstration, which was repeated at many locations around the world, put an end…

Approximately thirty years ago archivists began formulating new models to guide archival collecting, creating a literature that continues to grow. In the mid-1980s, the introduction of the documentation strategy collection model put new emphasis on cooperation between repositories and among stakeholders. The model initially focused on the history…

During April, the arrangement of the Earth, Moon, and Sun will be such that there will be an eclipse of the Sun at new Moon, and an eclipse of the Moon at full Moon. While viewing both eclipses will be limited geographically and visually, this does provide an opportunity for students to explore the orbital dynamics and positioning necessary for…

During the evening hours of the summer of 2005, there will be numerous opportunities to observe several of the brighter planets as they move along their respective orbits, overtaking and passing one another, performing a planetary dance with the choreography set to orbital speeds. With the exception of Mars, the visible planets will all be in the…

All the planets in the solar system revolve around the Sun in the same direction, clockwise when viewed from above the North Pole. This is referred to as direct motion. From the perspective on the Earth's surface, the planets travel east across the sky in relation to the background of stars. The Sun also moves eastward daily, but this is an…

It is shown that highly elliptical orbits, such as those of comets, can be explained well in terms of energy rather than forces. The principle of conservation of energy allows a comet's velocity to be calculated at aphelion and perihelion. An example asks students to calculate whether they can run fast enough to escape from a small asteroid.…

An amusement park is a large physics laboratory, full of rotating and accelerated coordinate systems. The forces are experienced throughout the body and can be studied with simple equipment or with electronics depending on age and experience. In this paper, we propose adaptations of classical physics experiments for use on traditional rides.…

Nontraditional laboratories can provide primary pathways by which students comprehend and apply modern astronomy. To teach a nontraditional astronomy lab, we must give students opportunities to critically contemplate unsolved questions and evaluate current data sources. In doing so, students can develop their own conjectures that will lead to…

This paper reports an examination on gender differences in lunar phases understanding of 123 students (70 females and 53 males). Middle-level students interacted with the Moon through observations, sketching, journalling, two-dimensional and three-dimensional modelling, and classroom discussions. These lunar lessons were adapted from the Realistic…