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This study aims to describe the 3D model's online modules effectiveness in the practicing mastery of conceptual knowledge in solar system learning using an instrument which tested 58 7th-grade respondents from one of the junior high schools in Jombang, East Java, Indonesia. The respondents were then divided without randomization into 29 respondents for the experimental group (EG), which studied using 3D models online, and 29 respondents for the control group (CG), which studied using learning resources from student books and learning media in the form of 3D models from the NASA website. The effectiveness is assessed based on the results of the conceptual knowledge test instrument with the CRI method using a quantitative descriptive approach. Based on these results, the 3D models online module in solar system learning cannot be fully effective in the practicing mastery of conceptual knowledge. When examined further, 3D model's online modules are effective in cognitive dimensions C3, learning indicators 1, 2, and 6, and conceptual knowledge sub-types 1. Furthermore, based on research results, learning the solar system using online modules with 3D models is better than using the official NASA website with student books.

The study investigates students' ability to analyze visual literacy and digital literacy through open-ended inquiry activities with astronomical observations and Heaven View application. The investigation consists of assignments for students to carry out six different variations of observational activities. Supervision is given in introductory astronomy lectures before and after using open-ended inquiry as direct observation and indirect observation activities. We discuss the implicits for open-ended inquiry learning that encourage students to participate in observational activities. Students are expected to develop several 21st century skills through an open-ended inquiry process, including visual-digital literacy. A pretest-posttest control group design with an open-ended inquiry model was applied to the experimental group and a direct instruction model to the control group. This study uses inferential statistical parametric methods, using ANCOVA. Students' visual-digital literacy data were obtained using the pretest and posttest. The results showed that a statistically significant difference between open-ended inquiry through astronomical laboratory observations assisted by Heaven View application compared to direct model recognition. Students' visual-digital literacy has increased due to the application of this learning model. The implications of this research can encourage students' visual-digital science literacy. Other educators can adopt open-ended learning experiences through the Heaven View app-assisted astronomical observation labs to promote visual-digital literacy in science.

Recently, Virtual reality (VR) technologies have started to be used increasingly in the field of education, as in many other fields. With the widespread use of virtual reality applications, there is a need to investigate the effects of virtual reality applications in the field of education. The results obtained from these researches can contribute to the creation of effective and efficient virtual reality-supported learning environments. VR applications, one of the technology-supported learning environments, come to the forefront to help students learn concepts more easily and permanently. Since VR is very new and not a common practice in classrooms yet, it is necessary and important to investigate how VR can be used in science lessons and students' views on these practices. The main goals of this study were to develop the Virtual Reality Solar System Model (VRSSM) for the unit "Sun System and Eclipses" for the 6th grade students and to find out what the students think about using virtual reality applications in science classes. This is a qualitative study and 16 students participated in this study and used the VRSSM. The semi-structured interview form was used as a data collection tool. The data was analyzed using content and descriptive analysis. The results of this research revealed that the students want VR to be used not only in science lessons but also in other lessons, they think that the knowledge they have gained is permanent and that they believe that this application can increase their science achievement. Additionally, students think that the application increases their interest in science lessons and affects their learning positively. Therefore, it is expected that the results of this research will lead to the creation and implementation of three-dimensional virtual reality learning environments related to various subjects and levels of science teaching.

The aim of this study was to examine which topic- and learning-related knowledge and motivational beliefs predict the use of specific deep-level learning strategies during an independent learning task. Participants included 335 Estonian fourth- and sixth-grade students who were asked to read about light processes and seasonal changes. The study was completed electronically. Topic-related knowledge was assessed via an open question about seasonal changes, and learning-related knowledge was assessed via scenario-based tasks. Expectancies, interest, and utility values related to learning astronomy and using deep-level learning strategies were assessed via questions based on the Situated Expectancy-Value Theory. Deep-level learning strategies (using drawings in addition to reading and self-testing) were assessed while completing the reading task. Among topic-related variables, prior knowledge and utility value--but not interest or expectancy in learning astronomy--were related to using deep-level learning strategies. Among learning-related variables, interest and utility value of effective learning--but not metacognitive knowledge of learning strategies or expectancy in using deep-level learning strategies--were related to using deep-level learning strategies. This study confirms that it is not enough to examine students' knowledge and skills in using learning strategies with general or hypothetical questions, instead, it is of crucial importance to study students in real learning situations.

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 developing innovative experiments to be conducted on the International Space Station, whose acronym (ISS) is the same of the Latin words "Innovatio, Scientia, Sapientia". Regardless of the odds of winning, "Space for Your Future" became a successful STEM educational project implemented in numerous schools. We illustrate how that Astronomy contest fostered a valid constructivist learning, a fruitful participatory science, and vast scientific research. We discuss, in particular, the activities of two teams of pupils from the Scientific High School "Giovanni Battista Grassi" in Latina (seat of the Planetarium "Livio Gratton") who participated within the thematic area No. 3 "Test the Sciences in Space". They all worked on chemical tests, suitable for the ISS microgravity, under the tutoring of Francesco Giuliano (Province Manager of the IYA 2009 and the IYC 2011 in Latina). The key reference is a talk given in the 104th annual congress of the Italian Physical Society at the University of Calabria (September 17-21, 2018) together with an invited lecture held in the 13th European Researchers' Night by Frascati Scienza (September 28, 2018).

Contribution: This article presents a Mars Exploration Control Virtual Simulation Experiment Platform (MEC-vslab), which aims to address the current challenge of limited integration between control engineering education and engineering practice. MEC-vslab is oriented toward the practical needs of Mars exploration engineering. It offers unparalleled advantages by transcending temporal and spatial restrictions and has been applied to several basic control engineering curriculums. Background: Owing to the limited applicability of conventional control engineering education in practical engineering, students encounter difficulties in connecting theoretical knowledge with real-world application scenarios. Due to the impact of environmental complexity and conditional limitations, teaching laboratories cannot realistically reproduce aerospace engineering application environments and problems, making it difficult to develop students' ability to solve unknown engineering problems. Intended Outcomes: MEC-vslab facilitates students in acquiring comprehensive control knowledge, encompassing Mars rovers and drones' dynamics modeling, controller design, and parameter configuration for strongly coupled systems. By engaging with this virtual simulation platform, students develop a profound understanding of cutting-edge control engineering principles, augmenting their proficiency in employing control theory to address practical engineering challenges. Application Design: MEC-vslab as a part of the control-related theoretical curriculum, it encompasses three stages. By completing these stages in succession, students are able to apply their theoretical knowledge toward solving practical engineering problems in a virtual setting. Findings: The analysis based on positive student feedback as well as their learning behavior and questionnaire research that the MEC-vslab is an effective learning tool to integrate control engineering education with high-precision engineering practice needs.

The present work refers to a study of 10-12-year-old students' ideas on the self- or hetero-luminosity of the Moon. To check the validity of students' reasoning on this question, we also examined their ideas on the lunar phases and how we see hetero-luminous objects. Students supported their ideas on the self- or hetero-luminosity of the Moon by using naïve explanatory reasoning, based on alternative ideas about various astronomical phenomena. On the other hand, an analysis of the students' answers showed that there are qualitative differences between the two groups. For students to understand that the Moon is illuminated by the Sun, comprehension of the relative movements, relative sizes and distances of the Sun-Earth-Moon system is necessary.

Observation is widely regarded as a fundamental way of studying nature. However, due to its complexity, proposing a comprehensive characterization is challenging. Observation is a method of studying nature that can be divided into several dimensions. Each of these dimensions can be presented as a pair of terms, which are elaborated in this paper based on the epistemological, philosophical, and educational literature. In addition, the dimensions can be assigned to two levels, which can be used to group the individual dimensions. This epistemological perspective on the method is enriched by historical examples from different periods in physics and astronomy to substantiate and illustrate the classifications. The aim of the paper is to provide an overview of the epistemological features of the method in terms of these dimensions, which may be helpful for discussions in teacher training courses.

The aim of this study was to describe the design process of an educational board game, the Planet-Dart. This board game design is based on the science curriculum and aims to enhance middle school students' basic concepts about solar system. The purpose of developing this educational game was to provide an entertaining way for learning science. A pre-service art teacher designed the game with the support of two pre-service science teachers. The pilot study was conducted with two middle school students, and with the feedback based on the pilot study the pre-service art teacher made modifications to the game. Then, the main implementation of the game was conducted in a real-classroom environment with 60 middle school students by one pre-service science teacher and two science teachers. The qualitative results revealed that this game was an enjoyable and effective learning tool to play among middle school students. In addition, the pre- and in-service science teachers emphasized that there was an entertaining learning environment during the play. Based on these findings, the developed educational board game could enhance students' learning outcomes and entertainment.

The aim of this research is to examine the effects of web 2.0 tools used in online astronomy education on the conceptual achievement of 5th grade secondary school students. For this purpose, the Sun, Earth and Moon unit was processed online using web 2.0 tools. The study was implemented in a public secondary school over a period of 6 weeks. Mixed research method, which combines qualitative and quantitative research methods, was used in the study. An easily accessible sample model was used to determine the study group. The sample of the study consists of 12 students (7 girls, 5 boys) in the 10-11 age group. The "Sun, Earth and Moon Achievement Test" developed by Sontay & Karamustafaoglu (2020) was used as a quantitative data collection tool in the study. Qualitative data collection tool "Semi-Structured Telephone Interview on the Concepts of the Sun, Earth and Moon" was used. SPSS program was used in the analysis of quantitative data. Content analysis method was used in the analysis of qualitative data. As a result of the study, it was seen that online education supported by web 2.0 tools within the scope of the Sun, Earth and Moon unit had a positive effect on students' conceptual success.

Recent solar eclipses provide relevant real-world contexts for learning about the scientific phenomena of the lunar phases. News coverage of the phenomenon may have raised questions such as, "Why does the Moon look different at different times, and sometimes as if it is not there?," and "What patterns can be found in the lunar phases?" Teachers can use these recent events to launch investigations into the mathematics of the phases. Connecting learning across the mathematics and science disciplines provides opportunities for students to deepen their conceptual understanding and apply what they have learned in new contexts (Vasquez et al., 2013). In this article, the authors present how they used the Moon Pie simulation in a sixth-grade science classroom to bridge the mathematics of angle measurement, fractions, covariation, and co-splitting (multiplicative/proportional covariation) with the scientific phenomenon of lunar phases.

Science educators now broadly recognize the multimodal nature of learning in science, where learners make meanings within modes (linguistic, mathematical, visual, and actional) by using the conventions of different sign systems or grammars in these modes. However, how teachers guide students to link and infer new meanings across modes, called "transduction" (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 2006. Reading images: The grammar of visual design. Routledge, p. 39), is less clear. This mapping of meanings across modes through realizing, generating, aligning, and coordinating meanings in representations is crucial to learning and communicating scientific concepts, inquiry processes, and reasoning. In this paper we propose a pragmatist account of how young students can be guided to achieve cohesion in this process. Drawing mainly on Peirce's (1998, The essential Peirce: Selected philosophical writings. Indiana University Press) theory of sign functions and affordances, we describe how, in practice, transduction entails a sequence of meaning-making steps across and within sign systems. For Peirce, sign systems in science enable inferential meaning-making within modes, but signs within these grammars can also prompt, support, and confirm meanings across modes. We analyze student learning in an elementary school astronomy class to identify how transduction is enacted and supported. We draw on micro-ethnographic analysis of the teacher's interactions with students and their artifacts to identify key transduction enablers. We found that young students can engage successfully in trans-modal reasoning if multiple conditions are met, with implications for science inquiry design in general and the teacher's key role in transduction guidance.

Modern astronomy as a field of inquiry may be shaped by what we consider the "scientific" ways of knowing. However, the history of astronomy as a human endeavour dates back millennia before the "modern" notions of "science". This long history means that astronomy is, at its core, built on a rich cultural diversity and history. This offers a rich potential that, while having been examined in various studies, has yet to be explored from a contextual pedagogical perspective. This paper offers an initial exploratory theoretical perspective on how social semiotics can be used to inform a conceptual framework. This approach not only brings notions of culture into the teaching and learning of astronomy but uses culture as the starting point in a way that does justice to the cultural diversity of the discipline and the world. In doing so, this paper develops two frameworks: (i) the Conceptual Framework for Culture in Astronomy Education and (ii) the Pedagogical Framework for Culture in Astronomy Education, both of these offer a novel approach to astronomy education.

Microteaching is a significant way to prepare pre-service teachers to overcome specific challenges in a natural classroom environment. It is widely accepted that pre-service science teachers gain pedagogical benefits from microteaching activities. Furthermore, microteaching enhances the conceptual understanding of the presenter on the related teaching topics. This research intends to map two pre-service science teachers' conceptual understanding before and after engaging in microteaching on the concept of phases of the moon. The data were collected through pre and post-interviews and observations of microteaching. Activated knowledge elements during interviews and microteaching were determined and compared. The study's results provided evidence that microteaching is a fruitful way to improve pre-service science teachers' understanding of phases of the moon. Furthermore, it was detected that both the quality and quantity of preservice science teachers' knowledge elements increased after their microteaching engagements.

This study aims to reveal the astronomy-related self-efficacy beliefs of pre-service teachers studying science education, primary school education, and social studies education programmes. The study is conducted using the survey design, a quantitative research method. The study sample consists of 322 pre-service teachers in their third or fourth year of a science education, primary school education, or social studies education programme at a university in Turkey's Central Anatolia Region during the 2016 fall semester. The Astronomy Teaching Self-Efficacy Belief Scale developed by Günes was used as the data collection tool. SPSS 22 was used to analyse the data, and the analyses benefited from descriptive and inferential statistics. Based on the findings, the pre-service teachers' total scores for astronomy self-efficacy showed no significant difference in terms of certain variables (i.e., gender, age, year, and having taken a previous astronomy course). However, significant differences were found regarding self-efficacy scores in terms of the programme and having taken part in astronomy and sky-gazing activity. Concerning the obtained results, the following suggestions can be made: pre-service teachers should be actively involved during the astronomy course, and their classroom management experiences should be promoted to improve their astronomy self-efficacy belief levels.

Technology has an essential role in the educational field. Technology-based mobile has the potential to improve education through Augmented Reality (AR). This study investigates the effect of mobile augmented reality on physics learning achievement and students' opinions on using this technology. The study used a convergent parallel pattern from mixed-method models in which quantitative and qualitative data are collected simultaneously and analyzed independently. The study participants are 64 (7th-grade students) who are learning solar system concepts at one of the junior high schools in West Java Province, Indonesia. This study collects pre- and post-test data as quantitative data to analyze students' learning achievement using the normalized gain score. The result showed that the students using mobile augmented reality have higher criteria for learning achievement than those using textbooks. The qualitative data was collected from interviewed students after using mobile augmented reality and analyzing using descriptive analysis. The results of the student opinion state that augmented reality is a new learning environment that effectively helps them understand physics concepts, enhances students' learning achievement and helps concretize abstract concepts through visual 3D simulations. Moreover, according to the study, students find it easier to understand physics concepts after using mobile augmented reality.

An immense body of literature on astronomy studies has provided evidence that individuals perceive the lunar phases concept as difficult. Furthermore, many studies have shown erroneous explanations or alternative conceptions of lunar phases. However, there is also a need to understand how individuals construct an explanation of the Moon's phases. This paper aims to explore pre-service science teachers' construction process of their explanations regarding lunar phases through clinical interviews. The data were obtained from fourteen pre-service science teachers and analyzed, identifying their nodes and dynamic mental constructs. The results indicated that most pre-service science teachers did not organize their nodes in a manner consistent with normative scientific explanations. In addition, pre-service science teachers changed their dynamic mental constructs while explaining different lunar phases, utilizing different media such as drawing and three-dimensional models, and responding to prompted questions. It was suggested that different opportunities, including technology-enriched activities regarding phases of the Moon, should be provided for pre-service science teachers to reorganize their nodes.

This study aims to ascertain academicians' opinions about out-of-school learning, awareness of it, and competency to plan learning activities in such situations for the purpose of teaching in out-of-school learning environments (OSLEs). The research group of this study, which was conducted as a case study, consists of 56 academics in the physics, chemistry, biology, and science education programs of education faculties in Türkiye. The Out-of-School Learning Environments Regulation Scale and a form containing four questions were used to data collection. The results from the scale, the average score was calculated as 4.41 for academics with experience in teaching OSLEs and 3.82 for academics without such experience. The qualitative results indicate that academics mostly prefer to focus on environmental education, astronomy, living things and life, and recycling issues through out-of-school learning activities and use different types of OSLEs such as science center, recycling facility and observatory. To conclude, despite the academics' high level of competency in performing out-of-school learning activities, it is evident that they underutilize these activities in their teaching.

Many research studies have shown that lower-secondary school students' scientific literacy depends on their understanding of corresponding scientific concepts. Therefore, it is of great significance to model and assess students' conceptual understanding in learning specific scientific concepts, because it can reflect and diagnose students' cognitive characteristics, so as to provide evidence for targeted educational interventions. However, on the topic of Moon Phases, existing research studies have deficiencies in the evaluation and analysis of different levels of students' conceptual understanding, which restrict teachers to take effective educational interventions to help them. Thus, this study explored a new level division and an assessment test for revealing and explaining students' different conceptual understanding in learning Moon Phases. This study was conducted among 768 Chinese lower-secondary school students. Through a variety of quantitative and qualitative analyses, it was found that students' conceptual understanding of Moon Phases can be divided into three levels of continuous improvement, including the mechanical memory of different phenomena of moon phases, the formation of a preliminary mental model of Moon Phases, and the construction of a complete mental model of Moon Phases. Accordingly, this study made some precise suggestions for effectively improving students' conceptual understanding of Moon Phases.

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 research, in which nested design, one of the mixed research designs, was used, the study group consisted of 42 students. Also, in the quantitative part of the study, a quasi-experimental design with the pre-test-post-test control group, which is one of the experimental research methods, was used. The Science course was conducted in the classroom with the students in the control group as the program predicted. In addition to the science lessons conducted in the classroom with the experimental group students, activities within the scope of the unit were carried out in the science center and the planetarium. Quantitative data were collected with the "Out-of-School Learning Environments Perception Scale (OSLEPS)". The follow-up test was applied to the experimental group of students three months later. In the qualitative part of the study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with eight students from the experimental and control groups. When the results obtained from the qualitative data are evaluated together with the quantitative data, it is seen that the practices in the science center and the perceptions of the experimental group students towards out-of-school learning environments differ positively compared to the control group students.

Fully online courses and degree programs are popular with students today. It is important that these courses provide the same rigor and value of a traditional learning experience in a face-to-face classroom in order to ensure mastery of concepts and learning objectives. Online classes typically have suffered due to a lack of hands-on experiences for the students. One remedy to this is to include simulated hands-on work in the course through online laboratory exercises. The belief is that these simulated labs allow students to actively engage in the learning process, thus providing a traditional learning component in the online classroom. This research investigates the effectiveness of online laboratory exercises in enhancing student understanding of core concepts taught in introductory astronomy courses. Identical classes, one with and one without an online laboratory component, were compared using pre- and post-quizzes to compare the percent gain in content mastery between the classes. A Likert-style end survey was used to quantify student perception of the laboratory component. This study showed that students in the classes with online laboratory exercises demonstrated significant gains in scores compared to those without the labs. Further, the study indicated that different styles of online labs vary significantly in effectiveness and that labs with a component of realism result in the highest gains in student learning. Finally, the survey results showed that students believed the labs helped them to learn the course material and that the labs were an effective "hands-on" experience in an online environment.

Most American classrooms employ a teacher-text-centered model of instruction that is misaligned with the developmental science of how children naturally learn. This article reviews that science and the origins of the common instructional model, including three modifications intended to make it work better (grades, age-graded classrooms, and high-stakes testing) yet which time has shown are problematic. Considering scientific theory change, I show how parallel circumstances exist between the situation in education today and pre-Copernican astronomy, building the case that education is now ripe for a paradigm shift in its instructional model, away from teacher-text-centered learning and to highly structured instructional environments that support self-construction through limited free choice. One proven model that responds to our world's contemporary needs is described, and a prescription is offered for how to bring about a paradigm shift in educational practice.

While scientific vocabulary is important, it can often become problematic for students. Sometimes, those words can become a barrier to participation or act as a gatekeeper to success in the science classroom. Under the Next Generation Science Standards, middle school students are expected to model Earth-Moon-Sun motions to explain Moon phases, eclipses, and seasons (NGSS Lead States, 2013). Using a phenomenography lens, we investigated the ways in which students seeing the Moon in nature and related classroom experiences translate into a mental model of lunar phases and how vocabulary is used to communicate these models. Eighth-grade students from three urban middle school classrooms were assessed for spatial ability and understanding of lunar phases. Girls and boys of both high and low spatial ability were interviewed to explore their Moon phase understanding and causal thinking before and after an astronomy unit. One school employed the school district's astronomy curriculum while the other used the REAL Curriculum. Students engaged in babbling (i.e., inarticulate but somewhat correct descriptions) and gargling (i.e., using many technical terms without evidence of understanding) with much greater frequency in pre-interviews. Students who developed correct vocabulary and used it comfortably in interviews were more likely to also display correct Moon phase conceptions. REAL Curriculum's project-based approach to teaching astronomy and related vocabulary through hands-on, contextualized projects and activities (e.g., Moon observation journals) produced greater vocabulary gains.

Collaboration is a complex, multidimensional process; however, details of how multimodal features intersect and mediate group interactions have not been fully unpacked. Characterizing and analyzing the temporal patterns based on multimodal features is a challenging yet important work to advance our understanding of computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL). This paper highlights the affordances, as well as the limitations, of different temporal approaches in terms of analyzing multimodal data. To tackle the remaining challenges, we present an empirical example of multimodal temporal analysis that leverages multi-level vector autoregression (mlVAR) to identify temporal patterns of the collaborative problem-solving (CPS) process in an immersive astronomy simulation. We extend previous research on joint attention with a particular focus on the added value from a multimodal, temporal account of the CPS process. We incorporate verbal discussion to contextualize joint attention, examine the sequential and contemporaneous associations between them, and identify significant differences in temporal patterns between low- and high-achieving groups. Our paper does the following: 1) creates interpretable multimodal group interaction patterns, 2) advances understanding of CPS through examination of verbal and non-verbal interactions, and 3) demonstrates the added value of a complete account of temporality including both duration and sequential order.

The purpose of this study was to describe students' perceptions of augmented reality learning media in solar system topics. The type of research used was descriptive research. The participants involved in this study were 32 students from class 8C of State Junior High School 3 Sidoarjo, Indonesia. The instruments used consist of a student perception questionnaire and an interview. The questionnaire has been validated previously and consists of 5 questions about the concept of planets and the concept of the moon concerning augmented reality learning media. The results showed indicators 1, 4, and 6 obtained the highest score of 97%. It means that students can easily understand these indicators using augmented reality. Indicator 2 got the lowest result of 72%, meaning that students have little difficulty understanding the indicator using augmented reality but are still in the good category. As many as 87% of students rated that augmented reality learning media is very helpful in understanding the material of the solar system. Data from interviews with six students also support this result. They stated that augmented reality is the most effective learning media in studying solar system topics because students considered it more transparent, more interesting, more comfortable to use, and more accessible for students to understand. In conclusion, augmented reality learning media has proven to be effectively used in learning solar system topics. It also can be applied to other abstract science topics that are difficult for students to find in everyday life.

Astronomy is seen as a "gateway" science, inspiring students to pursue Science-Technology-Engineering-Mathematics (STEM) related careers. However, there is little evidence that students' attitudes towards astronomy remain stable over time. By integrating Self-Determination Theory (SDT) and Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), we identified three dimensions of students' attitudes towards astronomy - intrinsic, which refers to the enjoyment of studying astronomy, extrinsic, which refers to the will to pursue a career in astronomy, and utilitarian, which refers to the relevance of astronomy to society. We used these dimensions as indicators for a Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to identify attitudinal profiles of 2650 Italian students in grades 9-13. We identified seven profiles, ranging from completely negative to completely positive attitudes. In particular, students enter secondary school mostly interested in astronomy and with a positive view of astronomy. By the end of secondary school, students have significantly lower attitudes towards astronomy in all three dimensions identified. From a theoretical perspective, our study shows that the SDT/TPB framework can be used to develop future instruments aimed at measuring students' attitudes towards science. From a practical point of view, our results call for better support for teachers to maintain students' attitudes towards astronomy throughout secondary school.

As science educators, we have an important opportunity to influence perceptions of who does science, and we can work to empower students to make our disciplines more accessible to people of all backgrounds. This goal was explicitly built into an introductory college astronomy course through the theme of "Who Speaks for Earth?" Interventions included daily inclusive practices, features of diverse scientists, as well as a mid-semester hour-long Anti-Racist and Gender-Inclusive Training. Pre and post assessment shows positive impacts on students' interest in learning more about diversity, and racism in particular, as well as comfort in intervening in situations of discrimination. Additional qualitative artifacts provide themes of students' thinking about diversity and inclusivity in astronomy, as well as their emotional reactions to receiving a targeted training. While some students reacted negatively and criticized these interventions, the vast majority of students expressed gratitude and commitment to making science more inclusive as they move forward as Earthlings. This work can empower other science educators to engage their students in such conversations. Most importantly, it provides the tools to advance an inclusive and intersectional framework in their teaching pedagogy.

Virtual reality (VR) technologies have the potential to transform astronomy education practices profoundly: new forms of visual representations, perceptual engagement and embodied participation promise authentic learning experiences in formal and informal learning spaces. While a growing body of research studies the educational needs and opportunities of VR astronomy education from the learner's perspective, relatively few studies have explored the perspectives of education and public outreach (EPO) professionals. This study aims to turn our attention to these complementary perspectives and shed light on design considerations for using VR in astronomy education. We unpack design principles as a dialogue between researchers and practitioners, framing this dialogue as an act of reflective practice. The findings and the ensuing dialogue draw on data from two focus group interviews with EPO professionals and scientists from the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence for Gravitational Wave Discovery. Our design principles centre on aspects of immersion, visualisation, facilitation, and collaboration and can guide astronomy educators who wish to use VR in formal and informal learning environments. Besides, our study contributes to a deeper understanding of the new learning contexts VR technologies can create in astronomy education.

Augmented reality has the potential to give students a unique experience, including when teaching science subjects. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of an augmented reality-based intervention in teaching "Solar Systems and Planets" to four students with learning disabilities. The dependent variable was the percentage of the students' correct answers to the questions about the science unit. The independent variable was the augmented reality-based intervention. A multiple baseline across participants' designs was used in the study. The results showed a functional relationship between the augmented reality-based intervention and the percentage of correct answers the students gave to the questions. All four students showed significant gains immediately after receiving the intervention and maintained it between one and 5 weeks. Social validity findings also showed that students enjoyed the augmented reality-based intervention and were willing to use it in other subjects.

This paper introduces a process of reading, reflection, and discussion used by two white faculty teaching at predominately white institutions to address challenges to equity in their introductory astronomy courses. The conversations focused on the context of large introductory courses, where individual instructors may lack resources and agency to make large-scale structural changes. Six goals to improve the classroom experience for all students are identified. The paper explores the nature of inequities that students face and, through a process of backwards design, identifies actions that begin to address such issues. The ideas discussed are rooted in ongoing conversations around injustice, antiracism, equity and inclusion and this paper describes a process by which individual instructors can make progress in their own classrooms. We write this paper with the hope that it could serve as a model, and that other faculty of introductory courses might consider embracing similar goals as we strive to make our disciplines more welcoming and inclusive.

Augmented Reality (AR) is now being used in education across various subjects. The number of AR applications has increased with the popularity of smartphones. In this study, we explore the use of AR-based apps for teaching astronomy in the last four years of secondary education in Spain. The study includes an experimental group and a control group to show the benefits of using AR in the classroom. We conducted a pretest-posttest design, with a knowledge questionnaire given before and after the teaching period. 130 students aged 12 to 16, from a secondary school in Spain were divided into four groups, each having a control and an experimental group. The experimental group showed significant improvement in academic performance through the use of AR. This research aligns with previous studies, confirming that the use of AR makes Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) learning more engaging compared to traditional teaching methods.

Background: In learning astronomy, students need to shift between 3D and 2D representations involving complex interactions between the body and material environment. Little attention has been paid to the iconic nature of this astronomical diagramming. Purpose: This research explored the value for students of diagramming to reveal the structural relationships of astronomical phenomena. The study aimed to (1) operationalise Charles Peirce's pragmatist semiotics to analyse students' bodily and material reasoning (2) identify the iconic nature of students' diagramming through Stjernfelt's activating of Peirce's iconicity. Sample: Two students (a pair) from a class of 30 Year 7 students (12 years old) and their teacher (1) from a government secondary school in Melbourne, Australia. Design and Methods: A micro-ethnographic approach to the analysis of video/audio records and student artefacts was utilised in the context of three moments from a 1 hr lesson on astronomy. This data was analysed using Peirce's sign types of icon, index and symbol to construct a triadic account of the bodily and material nature of students' reasoning as diagramming. Results: The two students determined, by revealing structural relationships with their bodies as well as a mini-whiteboard and a torch and globe, that the Sun is higher in the sky in Summer than Winter due to the Earth's rotational axis with a tilt (of 23.5 degrees) and its elliptical orbit around the Sun. Conclusion: For students to transduct between 3D and 2D astronomical representations, they need to coordinate space-based and Earth-based perspectives through bodily and material diagramming that makes apparent key structural relationships (i.e. iconicity).

While many previous studies have indicated that encouraging a growth mindset can improve student learning outcomes, this conclusion's applicability to college-level astronomy classrooms remains poorly understood owing to the variation in students' overall and domain-specific learning attitudes. To address this, we surveyed undergraduate students in an introductory astronomy class about their attitudes towards learning astronomy over the course of five semesters. Overall, students felt an affinity for astronomy, felt moderately competent, perceived astronomy to be intermediate in terms of difficulty, and agreed strongly with standard statements reflecting a "growth mindset," i.e., the belief that intelligence is malleable rather than fixed from birth. Their responses were stable over the course of the semester and did not appear to depend strongly on student demographics. The unexpected start of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated shift to all-virtual learning correlated with a drop in their affinity for astronomy, a small decrease in their perceived competence, and an increase in the perceived difficulty of the topic. Their overall learning mindset showed negligible change during this time, emphasizing the stability of their belief in a growth mindset as compared to other measured learning attitudes. However, more nuanced questions about their behaviors and interpretations in the classroom, about how they felt "in the moment," and about what factors were most important for their success in the class revealed significantly lower alignment with a growth mindset. This suggests that while introductory astronomy students may believe that they have a growth mindset, this mindset is not necessarily reflected in their self-reported classroom behaviors or measured responses to actual learning challenges.

We present two studies to investigate the extent to which attending a planetarium presentation increases secondary school students' understanding of the apparent motion of the Sun and stars. In the first study, we used the Apparent Motion of Sun and Stars (AMoSS) test in a pretest/post-test/retention test setting to measure learning gains and improved insight of 404 students (16- to 17-year-olds) after attending a classical planetarium presentation at the Brussels Planetarium. The AMoSS test is a questionnaire on the daily and yearly apparent motion and the observer's position. It consists of six multiple-choice questions about the Sun and six similar multiple-choice questions about the stars. We asked the students to explain their choices. The learning gains are rather small and the scores improve more on the Sun questions than on the star questions. This difference is largest for questions about the yearly apparent motion. We found that this is due to the fact that many students copy their knowledge about the Sun to the stars. Based on the results of this survey, we developed a new planetarium presentation with particular attention to the use of the celestial sphere model. We also developed a learning module that prepares students at school for this planetarium presentation. In a second study, we measured the learning gains after attending this new planetarium presentation among 339 students, also 16- to 17-year-olds. Some school groups had worked through the preparatory learning module at school and others had not. We find that the learning gains on the star questions are significantly higher than in the first study, due to better scores on the yearly apparent motion questions. In this regard, it is notable that we do not see significant differences between those students who prepared the presentation at school and those who did not. In the second study, the number of students who answer all questions correctly after attending the planetarium presentation or working through the learning module increases, but only significantly for those students who worked through the learning module at school.

Over the years, there have been various calls to increase and better represent astronomy in curricula. This is motivated by views within the astronomy and astronomy education communities that the awe, wonder, and interdisciplinary nature of astronomy has the potential to engage students in STEM across disciplines. Reviews of curricula have shown that astronomy topics are represented in most mandated curricula around the world and although there is a homogeneity of astronomy topics in most mandated curricula, this representation has its limitations. By using the Australian National Curriculum, the USA-based Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), and the Swedish National Curriculum as examples, this study unpacks ideas around "How much astronomy is enough?", the mismatches between astronomy topics in curricula and what constitutes astronomical literacy within the context of the Big Ideas in Astronomy document. The results identify that there is a significant gap at the galactic and extragalactic scales when considering the typical progression of astronomy topics when considering the conceptual, spatial, and temporal scales of the topics. Specifically, topics in curricula jump from tangible concepts within the student's immediate and Solar System spatial scales in primary school to cosmological spatial scales in upper high school, without reference to spatial and conceptual connecting topics at galactic scales. Potential sample curriculum statements drawn from the Big Ideas are presented as a suggested curriculum inclusion. This curricula gap is identified as a potential source of a similar gap in education research in these topics at these levels, which in turn perpetuates the problem by there being a lack of research-based evidence for inclusion in the curriculum.

In this paper, we present the results of an investigation into the effects of engaging with robotic telescopes during an Astronomy 101 (Astro101) course in the United States and Canada on the self-efficacy of students. Using an astronomy self-efficacy survey that measures both astronomy personal self-efficacy and instrumental self-efficacy, the authors probed their covariance with the respondents' experience of an Astro101 course that uses robotic telescopes to collect astronomical data. Strong effects on both self-efficacy scales were seen over the period of a semester utilizing a scalable educational design using robotic telescopes. After participation in the course, the results show that the gender gap in self-efficacy between self-identified men and women is largely reduced to statistically insignificant differences compared to the initial large significant difference.

The present research investigates the perceptions of kindergarten students, and pre-service teachers from the Early Childhood Education Department at the University of Athens, concerning the frequency of the Moon's appearance in the night sky. ?he sample consisted of 15 people from each population group. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect the data. Data analysis suggests that the vast majority of both population groups consider the presence of the Moon in the celestial dome to be indicative of the night. Furthermore, when the relevant questions are asked independent of the need to explain other phenomena, the participants usually respond with the tautological statement that they can always see the Moon at night because it is night. The research also revealed that although knowledge which is acquired over time from: (a) observational data (e.g. the periodicity of the Moon's Apparent Motion is not 24 h), and (b) school/extracurricular activities (e.g. the Moon orbits the Earth with a frequency that is not 24 h) constitutes grounds for doubting the belief that the Moon is always visible in the night sky, it does not actually affect this belief.

Solar eclipses are a rare phenomenon that everyone should have the opportunity to explore in depth. This article describes two programs developed by a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) outreach center with the goal of bringing the excitement of eclipses to all learners. The STEM outreach center collaborated with local schools to provide a learning opportunity about eclipses in the weeks leading up to the October 14, 2023, annular solar eclipse, and with a local library to provide a free public viewing event for the eclipse. Students and community members engaged in various activities including modeling lunar phases and eclipses, learning about why and how often eclipses happen in a mobile planetarium, exploring magnetism and sunspots with the use of a solar telescope, and measuring and graphing light intensity and ultraviolet radiation throughout the solar eclipse. Post-event evaluations and anecdotal evidence indicate that participants could make connections on a variety of topics including how sunspots occur; why eclipses are predictable; and the differences between annular, total, and partial eclipses. The article also includes adaptations for classroom teachers and other STEM outreach centers to use the ideas presented here for the April 8, 2024, solar eclipse.

We live in a neurodiverse world, and therefore need to ensure that equally diverse educational opportunities are accessible to all learners. The term "neurodiversity," coined by Judith Singer (1999) describes the broad, and complex, spectrum of human brain functionality. Terms like "neurodivergent" or "neurodistinct" (Goldstein 2020) include a wide range of neurotypes (such as autism, ADHD, ADD, dyslexia, dysgraphia and others). These neurotypes may present with challenging characteristics such as sensory issues, difficulty with executive function, or intense focus on specific interests. However, some of these characteristics can also be strengths when learners are understood, supported, and valued. Informal learning settings can be especially supportive environments for neurodivergent learners because there are often fewer time constraints for accomplishing tasks, activities are frequently hands-on and visual, learners are able to move about the space as they wish, and they can pursue activities in which they are most interested. Many kinds of learners can benefit from settings with these qualities, but they are particularly beneficial for those with sensory, attention, and social difficulties, which neurodivergent people often have. This is why understanding how to make connections between informal and formal education environments is so important for educators seeking to create educational opportunities that are accessible to a broad and neurodiverse learner population.