A recent study (Liu, 2005a, 2005b) revealed a limited number of alternative models of the universe held by young students in Taiwan and in Germany. In line with the previous findings, these alternative models frequently fall into two groups: earth-centred and sun-centred views, which draw a correspondence to the ideas in the European history of…

It is suggested that historical material concerning the model of the earth be utilised in the science classroom to construct narrative explanations. The article includes the various ancient models of the earth, the discovery of the spherical earth model, and the arguments and experiments coupled with it. Its instructional gain may lie in the…

This workbook (first in a series of three) supplements the textbook of the third year Naval Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (NJROTC) program and is designed for NJROTC students who do not have the reading skills necessary to fully benefit from the regular curriculum materials. The workbook is written at the eighth-grade readability level as…

An approach to orbital mechanics, which is accessible to beginning physics students and presupposes no knowledge of calculus, is presented. A theory of orbits is developed for the inverse-square central force law which differs considerably from the usual deductive approach. This document begins with qualitative aspects of solutions, and leads to a…

This document is a study guide designed to accompany an astronomy workshop conducted by the Task Group on Education in Astronomy. The purpose of the workshop is to improve the teaching of introductory astronomy courses for high-school and college non-science majors. Titles of the sections include: (1) Student Reasoning Patterns; (2) Analysis of…

This publication is the final report of the activities performed in the development of an introductory astronomy course operated in a competency based mode. The objective was for the course to be completely opposite from one which emphasizes memorization of factual knowledge. Instead, the student was to be involved in activities where he or she…

This publication is designed for use by elementary school teachers when introducing aerospace developments into classroom programs. Its materials, prepared at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, are grouped into ten sections: (1) earth characteristics that affect flight; (2) flight in the atmosphere; (3) rockets; (4) technological advances; (5)…

Reported is a study of a syllabus designed to teach students how to determine a position by celestial means. The syllabus was intended to augment existing curricula and be a topic for special interest groups and not designed as a semester-long course in itself. Each of the 14 lessons included was preceded by specific objectives written in…

Up-to-date knowledge about Skylab experiments is presented for the purpose of informing high school teachers about scientific research performed in orbit and enabling them to broaden their scope of material selection. The first volume is concerned with the solar astronomy program. The related fields are physics, electronics, biology, chemistry,…

The technical feasibility of a continental information network for astronomy has been demonstrated in the course of a two-month experiment conducted jointly by Dearborn Observatory of Northwestern University and the Stanford University Computation Center. The experiment simulated a scientific information network based on a high-level retrieval…

A self-paced individually prescribed instruction system at the introductory level of astronomy was studied, using 118 students to illustrate its effectiveness in comparison with a lecture-demonstration method. Seventeen terminal behavioral objectives served as the basis for the self-paced system. Subjects were divided into two sections, each…

The booklet contains information about an experimental space science survey course which explores the tools and methods used to study space. Included are a list of 22 performance objectives, an outline of the content in the course, lists of experiments, demonstrations, and projects for the course and the books in which these are to be found, a…

The major problem of this study was the development of an instrument, the Planetarium Test on Annual Motion (PTAM), that would use an observational format in the planetarium as a reasonable substitute for the real sky to evaluate the attainment of instructional objectives related to selected concepts on the annual motions of the sun, moon, and…

This article describes a summer Field Astronomy course designed to give secondary students the opportunity to use the telescope as a laboratory instrument, to learn telescope optics, and to do experiments related to observation. The equipment is described and illustrated. (Author/MA)

Presents a brief review of man's study of the planets from early visual observations to present day investigation by interplanetary spacecraft. (SL)