The basic science knowledge and attitudes toward science have been compared for (1) adult free-choice learners in an astronomy online course or MOOC, (2) undergraduate non-science majors, and (3) professional scientists from graduate student to professor level. The adult MOOC learners have a higher level of science knowledge than the college…

Young children are familiar with astronomical phenomena from everyday life, such as the movement of the celestial bodies or the shift from day to night. The present study examines the extent to which kindergarten students understand abstract concepts related to celestial bodies and processes (such as gravity and time), and whether they change…

As recent advancements in physics and astronomy rewrite textbooks in a very rapid pace, there is a growing need in keeping abreast of the latest knowledge in these fields. Reading preprints is one of the effective ways to do this. However, by having journal clubs where people can read and discuss journals together, the benefits of reading journals…

A significant approach that should be followed by physics teachers at the secondary education level in order to enhance students' understanding is to highlight the generality of the mathematical procedures that describe different physical phenomena. In this paper, the common procedure that is used to calculate the duration of various physical…

This study was aimed to investigate the effectiveness of augmented reality and modeling-based teaching in the "Solar System and Eclipses" unit. The pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design model was used in this study. For three weeks, the "Solar System and Eclipses" unit of the Science course was taught to the experimental…

During the COVID-19 pandemic, informal learning environments (ILEs) were forced to move programming online for the safety of staff and visitors. The Big Astronomy Project responded to the pandemic by releasing a planetarium show as a virtual YouTube 360 stream. This project was also utilized in the late stages of the pandemic in-person at…

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty members have faced a changed and challenging environment. They were faced with reallocating their time across various teaching, research, and service responsibilities; adjusting their teaching format, testing, and labs; and dealing with reduced access to the resources they needed to teach…

This study examines the perceptions and acceptance of virtual reality (VR) technology among underserved students through the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), the influence of social interactions, and the impact of a solar system-related VR activity. The study found that VR activities generally enhanced acceptance, with perceived enjoyment being…

The goal of the study is to create Visual Basic and MATHCAD apps to create programs that show the core force using physical forces as an example. The research subjects are high school teachers and students; the inherent context is high school STEM courses. Programs for computer visualization have been developed, and theoretical investigations have…

This dissertation consists of three studies exploring factors affecting whether, when and how students engage in sense making in science disciplines, and the epistemological components of instruction that impact their engagement. Each study is grounded in science education reform efforts, including the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS),…

This paper describes a method to demonstrate that the plane of the lunar orbit around Earth and the plane of the ecliptic (the plane of Earth's orbit around the Sun) are inclined with respect to each other, and to present a method for measuring the angle of the inclination. The angle between the diameter of the Moon's orbit when the Moon passes…

How far, in space, can we see? And can we see an object whose Hubble recessional velocity exceeds the speed of light? Maybe you've thought about these questions before, or perhaps you've seen them discussed in the literature or mentioned in the media. With the recent popularity of inflation and Big Bang cosmology, they're hard to avoid. The…

In the years 2015-2018, the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research and the Italian Ministry of Defense proposed the joint initiative "Space for Your Future. The ISS: Innovatio, Scientia, Sapientia" in partnership with the Italian Space Agency. It was a competition addressed to secondary school students and aimed at…

This study aimed to investigate the effects of the applications conducted in the science center within the scope of the science lesson "Solar System and Beyond" unit of the 7th-grade students in the secondary school, on the perceptions of the students about the out-of-school learning environments (OSLEs). In the quantitative part of the…

In this article, I traverse Maori positionality informing Maori worldviews, alongside geohistorical navigational trajectories of knowledge. Drawing on ancestral travel which utilized sophisticated readings of stars, currents, winds, clouds, contexts and colours of the biodiversity to navigate, the concept of wayfinding as methodology and method is…