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…

Estimating astronomical scales requires multiple complex mental processes, such as spatial thinking and interpreting large numbers. As such, it is a nontrivial question how these estimates can be most efficiently assessed. There is reason to believe that results from previous studies probing astronomical scale estimates are possibly susceptible to…

Data analysis and interpretation has always played a fundamental role in the scientific curricula of high school students. The spread of digitalization has further increased the number of learning environments whereby this topic can be effectively taught: as a matter of fact, the ever-growing diffusion of data science across diverse sectors of…

Multimodal Learning Analytics (MMLA) has emerged as a powerful approach within the computer-supported collaborative learning community, offering nuanced insights into learning processes through diverse data sources. Despite its potential, the prevalent reliance on traditional instruments such as tripod-mounted digital cameras for video capture…

Given the great interest that black holes arouse among non-specialists, it is important to analyse misconceptions related to them. According to the author, the most common misconceptions are that: (1) black holes are formed from stellar collapse; (2) they are very massive; (3) they are very dense; (4) their gravity absorbs everything; and (5) they…

Elementary students learn best when they make observations about perplexing natural phenomena, ask questions about what they observed, and pursue answers to their own questions through engagement in science practice. However, facilitating such learning experiences can be challenging for novice instructors. In this unit, pre-service elementary…

The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship among sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade gifted students' spatial reasoning skills, conceptual understanding of basic astronomy topics, and science achievement. To achieve this, the study was designed as a multi-factor predictive correlational study. The research sample consists of 642…

Advancements in mobile technologies have accelerated mobile Augmented Reality (AR), and many applications have been developed and presented in online stores. This study aims to evaluate the accuracy of the AR model of the Solar System simulated in mobile AR applications located in the Google Play Store. The applications were examined in the store…

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…

Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty members faced numerous challenges related to their teaching and research. Among other challenges, many faculty members encountered reduced access to the resources they needed. This Focus On briefly outlines faculty-reported changes in access to resources and compares those changes across the highest degree…

This study investigates the effect of life-based teaching using popular science journals on the success of solving life-based questions prepared by associating them with daily life. The study included 6th-grade students studying in a public secondary school in the spring semester of the 2020-2021 academic year. Using the quasi-experimental method,…

The purpose of this study was to describe students' perceptions of augmented reality learning media in solar system topics. The type of research used was descriptive research. The participants involved in this study were 32 students from class 8C of State Junior High School 3 Sidoarjo, Indonesia. The instruments used consist of a student…

While many previous studies have indicated that encouraging a growth mindset can improve student learning outcomes, this conclusion's applicability to college-level astronomy classrooms remains poorly understood owing to the variation in students' overall and domain-specific learning attitudes. To address this, we surveyed undergraduate students…

This study aims to describe the 3D model's online modules effectiveness in the practicing mastery of conceptual knowledge in solar system learning using an instrument which tested 58 7th-grade respondents from one of the junior high schools in Jombang, East Java, Indonesia. The respondents were then divided without randomization into 29…

The aim of this research study was to explore learning, i.e., changes in the knowledge structures of three in-service science teachers for the subject of active galaxies, through group activity conducted as part of a teacher training program. Qualitative methods were used in this study consisting of creating visual representations of the teachers'…