Describes a laboratory activity in a liberal-arts physics course entitled "Galileo to Newton and Beyond" in which students examine the orbits of Earth and Mars from heliocentric and geocentric viewpoints. (WRM)

In science teaching, Aristotelian physics is often presented in a fragmentary and oversimplified way which distorts the true meaning of Aristotelian concepts. Discusses some mistakes that originate from a partial reading of Aristotle's work. Contains 32 references. (Author/WRM)

Details the construction and design of two kinds of sundials appropriate for school or home use. (Author/WRM)

Describes two Internet sites devoted to astronomy that will help students avoid information overload. The Leicester University site is strong on information while the other site, maintained by the Astro-Web Consortium, offers a host of useful links. Also discusses the advantages of offline browsers, a student-use must that shows only Web pages in…

Describes a natural science course designed to teach students that nature is nearby rather than somewhere else. Students learn about local flora and fauna, track the weather, and closely monitor the progression of the seasons. The course uses no textbook, regularly uses the outdoors as a classroom, and follows the seasons' phenology as the…

The purpose of this study was to examine how 3-dimensional (3-D) models of the Solar System supported student development of conceptual understandings of various astronomical phenomena that required a change in frame of reference. In the course described in this study, students worked in teams to design and construct 3-D virtual reality computer…

This article describes the activities that fifth-grade students experienced when learning about the moon, its phases, and eclipses. It illustrates how mathematics and science can be integrated to enhance the learning of both. (Contains 3 figures.)

The concept of energy arises in all disciplines of science, from ecosystems and species niches to gravity and motion. Most students have difficulty understanding the relative sense of energy, however. Unless students are studying thermal energy and using the kelvin scale, the energy of an object or system is always with respect to some baseline or…

Each year, professionals and amateurs alike make significant contributions to the field of astronomy. High school students can also conduct astronomy research. Since 1992, the Radio Astronomy Research Team from Oil City Area Senior High School (OCHS) in Oil City, Pennsylvania, has traveled each year to the National Radio Astronomy Observatory…

One of the more effective ways to convey the story of our origin and evolution is to present the entire chronicle in a multimedia format that allows today's tech-savvy students to browse at will, thereby extracting parts of the story at their own pace and comfort. This article describes an interactive CD-ROM (included in this issue of "The Science…

To help students understand the connection that Earth and the solar system have with the cosmic cycles of stellar evolution, and to give students an appreciation of the beauty and elegance of celestial phenomena, the Chandra X-Ray Center (CXC) educational website contains a stellar evolution module that is available free to teachers. In this…

Two astronomy professors, using the Decoding the Disciplines process, help their students use abstract theories to analyze light and to visualize the enormous scale of astronomical concepts. (Contains 5 figures.)

It is argued that a positive response to lifelong learning policies involves the use of imaginative curriculum design in order to attract learners from disadvantaged backgrounds who are otherwise alienated from higher education. In this article a case study is presented based on the popularity of science fiction within popular culture, beginning…

The increased availability of computational modeling software has created opportunities for students to engage in scientific inquiry through constructing computer-based models of scientific phenomena. However, despite the growing trend of integrating technology into science curricula, educators need to understand what aspects of these technologies…

Estimates are that approximately 100,000 to 125,000 students take introductory astronomy classes each year at colleges and universities that do not grant bachelor's or higher degrees in physics or astronomy. This represents roughly 40% to 50% of the total number of students taking intro astronomy in the United States. Such nonresearch institutions…