Eight years have elapsed since the first IAU Colloquium (No. 105) on astronomical education “The Teaching of Astronomy”. In that time there have been substantial changes in the world of education – not just astronomical education. On the one hand, there has been erosion of funding, while on the other there has been an unprecedented opening up of access to information: there has been a change from educational experiment towards more regulation of curricula and determination of standards. But, as a reading of this volume will clearly show, there is still a healthy creativity in astronomy education. There is much important new work being done – there are adventurous schemes in public education, there is new detailed research on how our students and pupils may learn and on the portfolio of misconceptions under which they may be labouring when first confronted with astronomical teaching. One of the new features since 1988 is access to the Internet. An overwhelming variety of information is now readily available from the latest Hubble Space Telescope picture to the Web Page of the local astronomy society. But it is also clear that the sheer richness and variety of the Internet offering creates yet another problem – how to organise that information to maximum teaching and learning benefit. The North American continent is once again in a period of curriculum renewal and it is of great interest to see the interaction between that renewal, electronic media and the Internet. Such enterprises are receiving support in particular from the National Science Foundation in the USA. It is encouraging to see that the Internet is being used to support undergraduate projects.

Primary school

School education in Latvia, as in many other countries, is divided into two stages: primary and secondary education. Primary education is compulsory. Every year 30 000 new school children start attending primary school. This is a potential audience that can study astronomy fundamentals. During first grade studies school children learn the basics of natural science which include some elements of astronomy. These lessons are given once a week. At this stage children's interest in the Universe is great; therefore the most active teachers use some out of curriculum activities to give the schoolchildren an idea about the stars, planets and other celestial bodies. The science curriculum itself contains very few elements of astronomy (Karule, 1995). Even more many teachers have problems teaching science at the elementary school, because they are afraid that it is too sophisticated. This situation should be corrected, but at the moment no teacher training in science is planned.

In higher grades of primary school some astronomy elements are taught in different disciplines. In geography there are some topics about the Earth, Seasons and Tides (Klavins, 1992). In physics there are some topics about Eclipses of the Sun and the Moon (Kokare, 1992). And that is all. It leads to the situation that a young person, graduated from primary school, has heard nothing about constellations, Moon phases, comets and many other astronomy questions.

The expected positive changes are the following: new textbooks of the basics of natural science, where more attention is paid to astronomy, are being developed. The textbook for 1st grade has already been published (Vaivode et al., 1995), the others will follow.

Introduction

In recent years much research into conceptual understanding of science has been carried out. Oddly, Astronomy (one of the smallest sciences in terms of pupil numbers) is possibly one of the most widely studied subjects, with numerous papers being produced revealing the intuitive ideas of (usually) young school children. Within these papers it is generally recognised that if students cannot assimilate the fundamental concepts of a subject, then their own initial frameworks are altered accordingly, producing mis-conceptions.

Much of this research into pre/mis-conceptions, alternative frameworks etc, has been concerned with the knowledge of gravity or the shape of the Earth, the Sun and other such bodies. Another area heavily researched is that of phases/eclipses, and how the young children of today perceive these phenomena.

The research presented here takes the findings from earlier papers and extends it by assessing astronomy students at the University of Plymouth. The experiment probed two areas, the phases and eclipses of the moon and Sun and the ability of students to de-centre.

Previous Studies

It has been known for many years now that children usually start to think of the Earth as flat (Vosniadou et al (1989)), with age usually removing or adjusting initial frameworks. This may be demonstrated by assuming we have two children, A and B, which both hold the notion of a flat Earth. From the flat Earth model, child A may ‘leap’ to the concept of a spherical Earth straight away; the child's flat Earth conceptions have been removed and replaced with a model which the child is able to associate with ‘space’ and thus a spherical Earth.

Origins of Misconceptions

Students come into our classrooms with many misconceptions about science in general and astronomy in particular (see numerous papers and references in Novak, 1993 and Pfundt & Duit 1993). These beliefs evolve from a variety of sources throughout childhood and adolescence (Comins, 1993a, 1993b, 1995). I have found that directly addressing these incorrect beliefs in the context of their origins helps my students replace them with correct knowledge. By understanding the origins of their misconceptions students can screen information more effectively, i.e., they learn to think more critically. My purpose in this paper is to briefly identify origins of misconceptions and classroom techniques for replacing them.

I define misconceptions as deep seated beliefs that are inconsistent with accepted scientific information. Unless we directly address these incorrect ideas at their roots, most students cannot replace them with correct knowledge. Most students retain correct material only long enough to pass tests, and then lapse into believing their prior misconceptions.

In previous works (Comins, 1993a & 1995) I identified a heuristic set of origins that account for all the misconceptions I have identified. It is well worth noting that such a list is by no means unique and, given that I have since added another category, nor is it complete. Nevertheless, this set of origins is an extremely practical one, providing a significant set of tools for understanding and dissecting misconceptions and how these beliefs are used by different people. In an effort to make this set more tractable, I have now revised it to an even dozen (see Sections 1.1–1.12).

Introduction

The Star Centre is a national astronomy and space science base which

• facilitates public access to news and information

• promotes public awareness, interest, enjoyment and understanding.

The Star Centre meets these twin aims by providing an information service which can be accessed in a variety of ways and by offering a menu of public observing events.

The concept of a national astronomy base developed as part of the Centre for Science Educations growing portfolio of initiatives in both the formal education sector and the wider umbrella of the Public Understanding of Science. In December 1996 the Star Centre was launched with the aid of a Royal Society COPUS development grant and matching funding from Sheffield Hallam University.

This paper summarises the main activities of the Star Centre, gives some impression of the public response and outlines plans for future development.

The Star Centre in Context

The Star Centre reaches out directly to schools and the general public and is part of the growing network of long-term projects at the Centre for Science Education (CSE) within the School of Science and Mathematics as shown in Figure 1. The largest of these projects is the UK Research Council funded Pupil Researcher Initiative (PRI) in which school pupils in the 14–16 age range explore science topics through research briefs. The PRI provides resources, activities, strategies and support for science teachers and their pupils so that pupils will experience the excitement and relevance of science and engineering research and so develop a lasting interest and enthusiasm. All aspects of the research process are involved and there are opportunities for Science Fairs, Pupil Researcher Conferences and Roadshows.

The reader of this proceedings volume might ask why was it thought interesting to publish a few pages about the posters presented at IAU Colloquium 162? It had been decided that indeed the history of the meeting would not have been complete without some words about the poster presentations. The final success of the entire Colloquium depended on all presentations, either oral or poster.

The posters themselves have been different but it has been interesting to note that sometimes similar projects and ideas have been elaborated at very distant places in the world.

The basis of our teaching should be related to our roots; we ought to mention old traditions in our own country, such as the cosmological ideas of old Guarani Indians or the story of the first South American 18th century. Observatory of F. Buenaventura Suarez which have been shown by A. E. Troche Boggino of the University of Asuncion, Paraguay. However, I found most interesting the history of evolution of the human mind as depicted by the diagram of A. E. Troche Boggino showing chronological sequences of contemporary scientists, philosophers, writers, painters, sculptors and composers, from the times of Copernicus to the present day. It is easy to make a perpendicular cut or cross-section of the diagram at a given epoch, for instance that of Copernicus, and get to know what other famous persons have been living during his life-time.

In another part of the world, at the University of Glamorgan, UK, Mark Brake had been also in favour of a historical/cultural approach when telling his audience scientific facts, both when dealing with university students and with the general public.

Introduction

Comets and quasars, black holes and the big bang, pulsars and planets all feature in the media and excite people to find out more – astronomy might be described as the popular face of modern science. In the UK, recent changes in Advanced Level (A-level) physics courses mean that many students have the option of studying astrophysics to a depth beyond the merely descriptive. This option is proving popular with teachers and students, but presents particular challenges shared by few other areas of A-level physics courses.

Astrophysics within A-level physics

A-level courses are taken by students who choose to stay in education beyond the age of sixteen. Students typically study three subjects at A-level over the course of two years. A-level is approximately equivalent to 12th grade and the first year of a bachelors degree in the USA. Students are awarded grades for their A-level work which depend on their performance in external examinations and on evidence of experimental skills collected by their teachers. The examinations are set, and the grades awarded, by independent examination boards which specify the content on which students are to be examined and the skills for which teachers are required to provide evidence. For many students, A-levels are a preparation for more advanced study at university.

Fifty percent of the content of all A-level physics syllabuses is now defined nationally (School Curriculum and Assessment Authority, 1994), whereas previously the examinations boards had a greater degree of autonomy. Current syllabuses have been discussed and summarized by Avison, 1994; most consist of a compulsory element, with a menu of optional topics of which students must study (and be examined on) a specified number.

Introduction

The total solar eclipse of October 24, 1995, whose central line cut across the subcontinent of India, was only the second total solar eclipse visible from India in this century. The previous total eclipse visible from India occurred on February 16, 1980. At that time the print media filed widely varying reports on what the effect of seeing the eclipse would be, without much coordinated input from astronomers. With the new confused advice reinforcing old fears, almost the entire population literally hid indoors, fearing the worst. Many Indian astronomers silently resolved to themselves then, that public education must be taken up with the same level of seriousness as research programmes during the next eclipse.

The Background

The total solar eclipse of October 24,1995 was visible along some of the most populated parts of India and took place during a season of generally clear skies. Elsewhere in the country the eclipse would be partial. So nation-wide, our class was a mere 900 million strong!

Even in the last decade of this century, astronomy education in India is very sparsely serviced below the post graduate level. Several new planetaria have been built around the country since 1980. Clearly they would play a role in public education. So our 900 million strong class could be apportioned between them as far as public education was concerned. But the school, undergraduate and amateur sectors continue to suffer from lack of focussed attention. Here, however, the numbers involved would be much smaller. The Nehru Planetarium decided to use this opportunity to design activities not only for the general public, but also for specific groups of school students, undergraduates and amateurs.

What is the EADN?

In 1986, a group of university astrophysics institutes in eleven Western European countries established a federation known as the European Astrophysics Doctoral Network (EADN). The aims of the EADN, then and now, are to stimulate the mobility of postgraduate students in astrophysics within Europe, and to organize pre-doctoral astrophysics schools for graduate students at the beginning of their PhD research. The network has by now expanded to include about 30 institutes in 17 Western European countries, and ways are being actively sought for expanding the EADN even further to include Eastern and Central Europe. The coordinators have been Prof. Jean Heyvaerts (France) until 1992, Prof. Loukas Vlahos (Greece) 1992-1993 and myself since 1993. The network is financially supported by the European Union “ERASMUS” and the “Human Capital & Mobility” programmes as well as by national funds.

The Student Mobility Scheme

The Student Mobility Scheme has been designed to encourage postgraduate, or in some cases senior graduate, students to undertake part of their doctoral or diploma thesis research at an institute which is part of the network. It offers ERASMUS funded grants intended to cover student travel expenses and extra expenses encountered by the student caused by living away from their home institute. The grants are not full grants since it is expected that the student can retain the home grant while at the partner institute. The duration of the visit is usually anywhere between 3 and 12 months and must be preceded by contacts between the student's regular thesis advisor and the network partner advisor.

Introduction

Informal and formal astronomy education is present through many channels: newspapers and TV; amateur associations; clubs and science associations; at school at any level. The teachers are not only the main agents of the educational process at school, but they are also very active in extra-curricular activities: they run clubs, educational projects etc.

These activities are present everywhere in the world, as can be seen from the reading of the National Reports published every 3 years by Commission 46 “Astronomy Teaching” of the International Astronomical Union and published in its Newsletter.

A quick look at these reports shows that there is a huge variety of educational systems from one country to another: some countries have a specific curriculum in astronomy, others are just beginning to develop it; in other places, astronomy has been considerably reduced in the newly created curricula. One more difference: in some countries, education has a national curriculum; in others the responsibility for teaching is left entirely to each Province, a term used here to refer to the local situation. Such a situation and its consequences was were depicted by Wentzel (Williamstown IAU Colloquium 105, 1986).

Why Astronomy in the curricula?

In spite of these differences, a general trend can be drawn: it is very rare that astronomy is considered as a separate subject; it is nearly everywhere part of the programme either of Mathematics, Physics and Chemistry or Natural Sciences.

Introduction

Astronomy is, inherently, a high-interest subject. However, at the high school level there is a tendency to teach astronomy using higher-level abstractions and complex mathematics. This teaching approach thus eliminates a large number of students who have difficulties with abstractions and complex mathematics, thereby restricting the study of astronomy to a rather select group of students.

The astronomy course offered since 1976 at Wauwatosa West High School was developed to reach a wide range of students with differing abilities. The prerequisite for this one-semester elective course is the successful completion of one year of high school science. Most of the students enrolled in this course are high school juniors and seniors, ages 16-18. Since algebra is not a prerequisite, the “math phobic” students have been attracted to the course. The higher ability students enjoy the challenges posed by astronomy and often take this course as a supplement to their physics classes. Students who normally have difficulty with science suddenly discover that they can succeed in astronomy, and we have introduced a whole new group of students to this high-interest subject.

Activities

Our astronomy course focuses on hands-on activities, which can illustrate higher-level abstractions in a more concrete manner. In particular, we use Project STAR activities, which were developed at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Our text is also the Project STAR textbook (Coyle, et al, 1993). The following subsection will illustrate some of these hands-on activities.

Orientation: Celestial Sphere

[Slide: exterior of Wauwatosa West High School] Wauwatosa West High School is located in a suburb of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on the western shore of Lake Michigan.

Imagine trying to teach reading to students who do not know the alphabet or driving to someone who does not know the purpose of the brake. As teachers, we have a view of what the fundamental ideas that our field are and make decisions about their coverage and order in our courses. Yet, research shows that students rarely have the foundation that we expect; they hold misconceptions about the physical world that actually inhibit the learning of many scientific concepts. Moreover, the metaphors that we employ for building student understanding: reliving the historical development of the field, journeying from the closest to farthest reaches of the universe, and observing the objects in the sky, are only based on our own beliefs in their effectiveness. Empirical evidence shows that they are of little value; there is rarely any lasting change in students’ conceptual understanding in science. Yet, by testing large populations, one can tease out the relative difficulty of astronomical conceptions, which misconceptions inhibit understanding of scientific ideas, and which concepts are prerequisites for others. These relationships allow the determination of an intrinsic structure of astronomical concepts, the way in which novices to experts appear to progress naturally through to an understanding of the field. Such a structure has application in the classroom. Certain ideas appear to be so fundamental to understanding light, scale, and gravity that no headway can be made until they are mastered. If we learn to set realistic goals for our students and teach the prerequisite notions prior to the more exotic ones, we may be able to optimize student learning and build understanding that outlasts the final exam.

Introduction

The status of teaching Astronomy in European countries is variable. Sometimes Astronomy appears as a compulsory subject or as an optional subject, but on many occasions Astronomy appears within another subject, depending on the country. It is even possible for Astronomy not to appear anywhere in the curriculum. But of course the position here is better than in other less developed places. In Europe there are various topics which can be organized into two main groups: aspects related to relative motions and aspects related to properties of light. Some examples of teaching activities and materials in various countries will be described.

It is also necessary to emphasize several initiatives such as the review of Astronomy curricula, the publication of general books on Astronomy for secondary schools and the organisation of new journals to promote Astronomy in schools.

It is essential to mention the new European Association for Astronomy Education (EAAE) founded last November in Athens. This meeting was attended by 100 teachers and astronomy professionals from 17 European countries. It is hoped that this, in conjuntion with the other initiatives, will do much to encourage the study of Astronomy.

Relative Motions.

In this field, as in others, there is some very interesting material promoted by the Comite de Liaison Enseignants et Astronomes (CLEA) in France. Denise Wacheux has produced a special umbrella which is used to study the movement of the Sun and celestial sphere in relation to the horizon, and which has very interesting didactic applications in secondary schools. It is possible to change the latitude and to move the umbrella around its axis.

Students, young and old, find the existence of extraterrestrial life one of the most intriguing of all science topics. The theme of searching for life in the universe lends itself naturally to the integration of many scientific disciplines for thematic science education. Based upon the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), the Life in the Universe (LITU) curriculum project at the SETI Institute developed a series of six teachers guides, with ancillary materials, for use in elementary and middle school classrooms, grades 3 through 9. Lessons address topics such as the formation of planetary systems, the origin and nature of life, the rise of intelligence and culture, spectroscopy, scales of distance and size, communication and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. Each guide is structured to present a challenge as the students work through the lessons. The six LITU teachers guides may be used individually or as a multi-grade curriculum for a school.

Integral to the development process was the collection of evaluation data on draft materials from field test teachers, students, and scientists. These data led to revisions and further field tests. Responses indicate that the objectives for the materials were achieved, and that the materials were well received. The LITU project was conducted by the SETI Institute in Mountain View, CA; the project was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The LITU Series is being published by Teachers Ideas Press, a division of Libraries Unlimited, Englewood, Colorado, USA.

Goals

Early in this century, many cities and universities could support telescopes large enough to do serious research. There were significant observatories even in the less accesable parts of the world. Astronomy was very much an international science, and the IAU was founded to aid this international outlook.

In the middle of this century, astronomy changed in two ways. First, the frontier research turned to new topics. It needed telescopes too expensive for most small and many large countries. Second, physics became a more prominent part of astronomy. That left many of the existing small observatories scientifically isolated, especially in developing countries. The scientifically lonely astronomers there needed new alliances to survive.

Simultaneously, the new prominence of physics led to astronomers appearing in physics departments of developing countries. These new astronomers were also isolated and they also needed to build alliances to survive.

Since the 1960s, the IAU has tried to support astronomy in developing countries, especially the lonely astronomers, by several teaching-related projects, supervised by IAU Commission 46. I shall tell you the more formal aspects of these projects, and then I want to summarize some of the successes and difficulties. But first I want to emphasize an important principle for each of these projects:

Any country or university where the IAU helps to develop astronomy must contribute significantly to this project. The more usual alternative has been tried by other scientific societies. Typically, they donated a piece of research equipment. Far too often several years later, the equipment has been found rusting in some corner. Those of you familiar with tropical countries know that rust destroys neglected equipment very rapidly.

This project had two principal objectives: to communicate safe methods to observe the Sun, so as to prevent ophthalmological accidents to people during the total solar eclipse of 3rd November 1994, and to collaborate with the primary school teachers in the science classroom, illustrating the classes, motivating the students to observe sky phenomena.

Introduction

In January 1993, a commission called “ECLIPSE 94” Executive Commission, of the Brazilian Astronomical Society was created to coordinate assistance with arrangements for observing the total solar eclipse of 3rd November 1994, that in Brazil was total in the western part of Parana State, in Santa Catarina State and in a Rio Grande do Sul zone. Professional astronomers from Brazil and from several parts of the world were mobilized to observe this eclipse. The biggest interest in this phenomenon was because the next one of this type, in Brazil, will only occur in the year 2046, and will be visible in Paraiba State. The general coordination was done by Prof. Dr. Oscar Matsuura, from the Astronomical and Geophysical Institute of University of São Paulo.

Following the suggestion of the Working Group on Eclipses of the International Astronomical Union, this commission decided to amplify their action, assuming the articulation of a large publicity campaign about eclipses, close to the common people. Such a campaign was aimed at giving technical and astronomical information and at preventing ophthalmological accidents to people during the total solar eclipse of November 3, 1994. Utilising this fact, we decided to use this campaign to collaborate with the teachers, principally in high school, illustrating science classes, and motivating the students to observe sky phenomena.

I discuss the burgeoning World Wide Web and how it can be used to aid astronomy teaching. I supply a list of a variety of useful Web sites.

The World Wide Web was invented 5 years ago at CERN, which is now translated as the European Laboratory for Particle Physics, as a way of aiding access to information from remote sites. The invention of graphic interfaces, notably Mosaic by a group at the National Supercomputer Center in Illinois and then Netscape Navigator as a private development by many of the original Mosaic people, led to an explosion in use of the Web. Millions of people around the world are now able to access information from over 100,000 Web sites.

There is much astronomical information on the Web, though that information make up only a small fraction of all the information available through this medium. The astronomical information is of many varied types, from images of observations to tables of data to lesson plans to journal articles. The question for us to address here is how best to make use of this information for astronomy teaching. Even with the increased resources available at our desktops, the individual teacher remains an important part of the educational enterprise.

One set of alternatives deals with whom the Web information is aimed at. To present new Web data in class, it is useful to have a means of projecting computer information on a screen, which is most often done with an LCD projector panel.

Background

For the teaching of astronomy there can be no alternative to the hands-on experience of using instruments on a real telescope observing on a clear dark night. Such experience is not possible for millions of students who are excited by the ideas of astronomy. It is not merely one of cost. The logistics of assembling a class of students after school hoping for clear skies destroys the possibilities of real observing for the majority of students. Robot telescopes change all that.

In educational terms a robot telescope can provide a range of experiences of observational astronomy. The development of CD-ROM and the Internet to support classroom learning have produced the concept of REAL(Dunlap 1996): a Rich Environment for Active Learning as an appropriate framework on which to develop the classroom response to these technologies. The Bradford Robot Telescope has demonstrated student centred experiences to generate a Rich Environment for Active Learning(REAL), for astronomy. It is based on a massive extension of the library and experiential resource available to the teacher over the Internet, the opportunity for the student to develop and answer questions associated with the learning programme and access to a robot telescope which provides two modes of operation: service observing and eavesdropping. In the concept of REAL the students are:-

• Allowed to, and taught to, determine what they need to learn through questioning and goal setting

• Provided with sufficient scaffolding in the environment to help students with prompts, examples, modelling and collaborative support

• Enabled to manage their own learning activities

• Enabled to contribute to each others’ learning through collaborative activities.

Introduction

Sometimes I find my self in a society in the middle of The Global Village and sometimes in a society in a little state with a large number of computers not speaking the language I usually talk. When a prevailing part of the population are working in one area the society is named after that area, allthough a lot of other things can characterize the society. The latest societies are:

• Agricultural society

• Industrial society

• Information society

The agricultural and industrial societies have come to an end. When a society comes to an end, it is usually because the efficiency of production reaches a level higher than necessary, to keep all the workers busy. Many of the workers are attracted to other kinds of work, which gives rise to the next culture.

We must imagine a similar over production of information, so that the number of people occupied by producing information will start to decline. Some say that we have reach the end point already, because we have access to information from all over the world through computers, Internet and World Wide Web in an amount larger than we can handle. But that may not be true because we are waiting for large numbers of the population to learn to utilize all that information. The demand may increase for some time to come.

We can see the extremly high impact computers have on politicians, compared to their previous interest in libraries. In Denmark more money has been put into school computers during the last five years, than have ever been used for school library books.