Julia D. Plummer

A Cross‐age Study of Children’s Knowledge of Apparent Celestial Motion

The US National Science Education Standards and the Benchmarks for Science Literacy recommend that students understand the apparent patterns of motion of the Sun, Moon, and stars by the end of early elementary school, yet no research has specifically examined these concepts from an Earth‐based perspective with this age group. This study examines children’s understanding of the patterns of apparent celestial motion among first‐grade, third‐grade, and eighth‐grade students, and investigates the extent to which these concepts develop from elementary to middle school in students without targeted instruction. Twenty students at each grade level (total n = 60) were interviewed using a novel interview setting: a small dome representing the sky, which allowed students to demonstrate their ideas. Analysis reveals that elementary and middle school students hold a variety of non‐scientific ideas about all aspects of apparent celestial motion. While the eighth‐grade students’ understanding of the apparent motion of the Sun shows a greater level of accuracy compared with the third‐grade students, across the majority of topics of apparent celestial motion, the overall level of accuracy shows little change from third grade to eighth grade. Just as prior research has demonstrated the need for instruction to improve children’s understanding of the nature of celestial objects and their actual motions, these results support the need for research on instructional strategies that improve students’ understanding of celestial motion as seen from their own perspective.

Children Learning to Explain Daily Celestial Motion: Understanding astronomy across moving frames of reference

This study investigated elementary students’ explanations for the daily patterns of apparent motion of the Sun, Moon, and stars. Third‐grade students were chosen for this study because this age level is at the lower end of when many US standards documents suggest students should learn to use the Earth’s rotation to explain daily celestial motion. Interviews with third‐grade students (n = 24), prior to formal astronomy education, revealed that about half are working from naive mental models. The other half of the students used more scientific explanations for the Sun’s apparent motion but used scientific descriptions or explanations of the Moon’s and stars’ daily apparent motion far less frequently. We also describe an instructional approach designed to support students as they move between the Earth‐based and heliocentric frames of reference using computer simulations and modelling with hands‐on and kinaesthetic strategies. This instruction was tested with another group of third‐grade students as part of their gifted programme (n = 16). Pre/post‐interview analysis supports the instructional approach as the students showed a more sophisticated ability to move between the Earth‐based and heliocentric frames of reference. The students’ high initial knowledge level, entering instruction at the more advanced end of the general third‐grade student population, limits our ability to generalize the instructional findings; however, these findings provide an important step in improving our understanding of how to support students in this complex area of astronomical reasoning.

Spatial thinking as the dimension of progress in an astronomy learning progression

The big idea of celestial motion, observational astronomy phenomena explained by the relative position and motion of objects in the solar system and beyond, is central to astronomy in primary and secondary education. In this paper, I argue that students’ progress in developing productive, scientific explanations for this class of astronomical phenomena can be defined by the increasing sophistication of spatial knowledge and reasoning in the domain. Drawing upon literature on children’s ideas about celestial motion, instruction that supports progress in that domain and literature on spatial thinking, I developed a learning progression (LP) framework that integrates cognition, instruction and assessment to understand student learning in this domain. This framework was applied to a study of children learning to explain the daily celestial motion of the Sun, Moon and stars, and the phases of the Moon. The application of the LP framework to analyse teaching sequences in astronomy extends this review by illustrating how progress within these phenomena is shaped by students’ ability to visualise the appearance of objects and their motions across moving frames of reference.

Students’ Development of Astronomy Concepts across Time

knowledge allows them to generate causal explanations about that domain. These causal explanations in turn constrain the inferences they generate about novel instances (1993, p. 144).” Thus children may be unable to reason between geocentric and heliocentric frames of reference due to their lack of knowledge of the nature of the objects involved and the observable properties pertaining to the subject, and not simply their developmental level. This lack of knowledge may include a full understanding of the shape of the earth and their location on that earth, how the curvature of the earth may

Covering the Standards: Astronomy Teachers' Preparation and Beliefs.

An online survey of science teachers and interviews with curriculum directors were used to investigate the coverage of astronomy in middle and high schools in the greater Philadelphia region. Our analysis looked beyond astronomy elective courses to uncover all sources of astronomy education in secondary schools. We focused on coverage of state standards, time spent on astronomy, availability of resources, teacher efficacy, and teacher pedagogical beliefs. Astronomy is not taught in depth, and many students receive no astronomy instruction across both middle and high school. Many teachers hold reform-based perspectives but also maintain traditional beliefs about astronomy teaching and learning. Implications for future reform efforts are discussed.

Informal Science Educators' Pedagogical Choices and Goals for Learners: The Case of Planetarium Professionals.

This study extends our understanding of the goals, beliefs, and pedagogical choices made by planetarium professionals. Interviews were conducted with planetarium professionals (N1⁄4 36) to assess their goals for audiences and beliefs about the design of the learning environment. Classification of participants, according to a six-facet framework on effective learning environment design, suggests a range of perspectives on the design of the learning environment that primarily include learner-centered, motivationally-oriented, socioculturallycentered, and physically-oriented perspectives. Results also point to the importance of considering increased opportunities for professionalism in the field of planetarium education.

Survey of the Goals and Beliefs of Planetarium Professionals Regarding Program Design

Despite decades of research on the importance of engagement and interaction in learning experiences, programs produced for planetarium audiences are primarily passive in nature. Planetarium professionals were interviewed with regard to their goals and beliefs for planetarium experiences, specifically focusing on goals for children, and their interest with regard to a program format that integrates segments of live interaction with automated content N=36 . Planetarium professionals’ goals most frequently reflect increasing content knowledge and motivating audiences to continue learning. To meet these goals, they often cite live interaction as a key strategy for elementary-aged audiences. Further, planetarium professionals often combine live interaction with prerendered automation. These results suggest that the planetarium community’s goals and beliefs are at odds with the current model of passive planetarium production and that the frontline professionals would support opportunities that support their ability to actively engage their audiences.

The Role of Perspective Taking in How Children Connect Reference Frames When Explaining Astronomical Phenomena.

ABSTRACT This study investigates the role of perspective-taking skills in how children explain spatially complex astronomical phenomena. Explaining many astronomical phenomena, especially those studied in elementary and middle school, requires shifting between an Earth-based description of the phenomena and a space-based reference frame. We studied 7- to 9-year-old children (N = 15) to (a) develop a method for capturing how children make connections between reference frames and to (b) explore connections between perspective-taking skill and the nature of childrens explanations. Childrens explanations for the apparent motion of the Sun and stars and for seasonal changes in constellations were coded for accuracy of explanation, connection between frames of reference, and use of gesture. Children with higher spatial perspective-taking skills made more explicit connections between reference frames and used certain gesture-types more frequently, although this pattern was evident for only some phenomena. Findings suggest that children – particularly those with lower perspective-taking skills – may need additional support in learning to explicitly connect reference frames in astronomy. Understanding spatial thinking among children who successfully made explicit connections between reference frames in their explanations could be a starting point for future instruction in this domain.

Using a planetarium fieldtrip to engage young children in three-dimensional learning through representations, patterns, and lunar phenomena

ABSTRACT Fieldtrips to informal science institutions can be opportunities for children to engage in three-dimensional learning, which is the integration of core disciplinary ideas, science practices, and cross-cutting concepts. We explored the question of whether the combination of a planetarium fieldtrip and classroom lessons could support young childrens three-dimensional learning in astronomy. We assessed first grade students’ (6–7-year-olds; N = 46) three-dimensional learning at the intersection of lunar phenomena, representational practices, and patterns. Students’ were interviewed, where they both described their understanding verbally and constructed representations, before the intervention, after the intervention, and one year later. A mixed-methods analysis demonstrated significant improvement in students’ three-dimensional learning, focused on the apparent daily motion of the Moon and lunar phases. Analysis of both interview results and audio/video of the intervention suggest that the planetarium fieldtrip provided students with a source of evidence for concepts and patterns related to scientific phenomena, which was then the subject of further inquiry in the classroom as students integrated new science concepts and patterns with their own ideas for how to create scientific representations. These findings suggest that fieldtrips, when supported by students’ classroom experiences, can serve an important role in engaging young children in three-dimensional learning and thus pointing to ways that informal science venues can work with formal educators to engage students in doing science.