Cosmology education has become an integral part of modern physics courses. Directed by National Curricula, major UK examination boards have developed syllabi that contain explicit statements about the model of the Big Bang and the strong observational evidence that supports it. This work examines the similarities and differences in these…

Through a new working group, tribal colleges and universities (TCUs) are playing a critical leadership role in addressing some of the most difficult climate-related problems now facing the planet. Because of their unique cultural character, TCUs have an important voice. The American Indian and Alaska Native Climate Change Working Group was formed…

In conjunction with the August 8, 2007 launch of STS-118, the International Technology Education Association (ITEA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) developed and recently debuted curricular units for Grades K-12 on Space Exploration, known as STS-118 Design Challenges. The units focus on aspects of the themes that NASA…

This article describes a community science night as a professional development experience for teachers in a rural school in the southeastern United States. As participants circulated through eight astronomy activities, they engaged in reading images, reading writing, and reading their natural and physical world. Through such diverse textual…

The motion of the planets in their orbits can be demonstrated to students by using planetarium software programs. These allow time to be sped up so that the relative motions are readily observed. However, it is also valuable to have the students understand the real speed of the planets in their orbits. This paper describes an exercise that gives…

The curricular and pedagogical properties of Lecture-Tutorials for Introductory Astronomy are discussed. These properties are combined with aspects of the Eccles et al. concept of subjective task value to create an interpretive framework for a successful implementation of Lecture-Tutorials at the classroom level.

Children's ideas about the Earth in space have been of interest to science educators and cognitive psychologists for some time. By focusing almost exclusively on shape and gravity alone, however, other important Earth attributes have been largely neglected or overlooked. Findings from a quasi-experimental study of knowledge acquisition and concept…

Assessments of lexical acquisition are often limited to preschool children on forced-choice comprehension measures. This study assessed the nature of the understandings 30 school-age children (mean age = 6;7) acquired about the science term eclipse following a naturalistic exposure to a solar eclipse. The knowledge children acquired about eclipses…

Lawson's (Lawson, A.: 2004, Science & Education, 13, 155-177) analysis of the meteorite hypothesis of dinosaur extinction exhibits flaws similar to his earlier (2002) analysis of Galileo's discovery of Jupiter's moons (Allchin, D.: 2003, Science & Education, 12, 315-329).

Accurate and accessible expressions for the probability of having a matching birthday are obtained by using Stirling's formula and Taylor series. For interest, the results are applied to the planets of our solar system.

Enumerates many astronomical errors that occur in literature in both poetry and prose. Provides examples of these errors and explains why each example is in error. (GS)

Describes information learned about Mars from past Mariner probes. Discusses future space probes that are expected. (RH)

This handbook is an adjunct to the "Laboratory Manual for Advanced Physical Science 2," and is intended to assist teachers in organizing laboratory experiences. Information for each experiment includes (1) Introduction, (2) Scheduling, (3) Time required, (4) Materials needed , (5) Precautions, (6) Laboratory hints, (7) Sample data, and…

In order to identify producers of physics research and to determine their relative productivity, institutional affiliations of authors as given in nine physics journals were studied. Organizations were classified and analyzed by type and geographical location, and productivity established. Findings indicate that organizations differ in their rate…