Both the basic educational contents for students and study programs for science teachers include several topics in physics and astronomy, from the simplest ones to others as advanced as nuclear fusion to explain stellar evolution and space-time geometry for an approach to modern cosmology. In all these subjects, and most often in the simplest ones, alternative conceptions emerge, as both groups reach science course with preconstructed and consistent models of the universe surrounding them. In this work we present a series of basic questionings that make us reflect on the present situation of the teaching-learning relationship in astronomy within the framework of formal education. We then briefly explain our project aiming at finding the real learning situation of both students and prospective primary-school teachers in astronomical topics and, from the expected results of it, we point towards the need to develop didactic tools that could contribute to improve formal education in astronomy issues.
$\textit{Thailand-UK Python+Astronomy Summer School}$ (ThaiPASS), a collaborative project comprising UK and Thai institutions and assess its impact and possible application to schools in the United Kingdom. Since its inception in 2018, the annual ThaiPASS have trained around 60 Thai high-school students in basic data handling skills using Python in the context of various astronomy topics, using current research from the teaching team. Our impact assessment of the 5 day summer schools show an overwhelmingly positive response from students in both years, with over $80\%$ of students scoring the …
Over the past two decades, I have been actively involved in teaching astronomy and astrophysics to Chicago Public School (CPS) students and their teachers, in collaboration with various groups as well as by myself. Valuable resources that we have created for schools include the Multiwavelength Astronomy Website, with modules for infrared, optical, ultraviolet, X-ray and gamma-ray astronomy. The content of each lesson is derived from interviews with scientists, archived oral histories, and/or memoirs. Lessons are evaluated by a science educator and at least one subject matter expert before bein…
The shortage of highly qualified high school physics teachers is a national problem. The Mitchell Institute Physics Enhancement Program (MIPEP) is a two-week professional development program for in-service high school physics teachers with a limited background in the subject area. MIPEP, which started in 2012, includes intense training in both subject matter and research-based instructional strategies. Content and materials used in the program fulfill state curriculum requirements. The MIPEP curriculum is taught by Texas A&M University faculty from the Department of Physics & Astronomy along w…
The San Antonio Teacher Training Astronomy Academy (SATTAA) completed its fourth annual iteration in June 2021 . While the program began as a face-to-face professional development opportunity for future and current school teachers, it transitioned to a fully online opportunity in 2020. In our efforts to offer an astronomy education program that is inclusive and particularly attentive to highly diverse populations, the transition to online programming became a core aspect of scaling up the program. The 2021 iteration featured an international facilitation team, and, for the first time, supporte…
Societal biases are a major issue in school students' access to and interaction with science. Schools engagement programmes in science from universities, like independent research projects, which could try and tackle these problems are, however, often inequitable. We evaluate these concerns applied to one such programme, `Physics Research in School Environments' (PRiSE), which features projects in space science, astronomy, and particle physics. Comparing the schools involved with PRiSE to those of other similar schemes and UK national statistics, we find that PRiSE has engaged a much more dive…
Astronomy and astrophysics are regarded as highly motivating topics for students in primary and secondary schools, and they have been a recurrent and effective resource to inspire passion about science. In fact, during the last years we have witnessed a boost of facilities providing small robotic telescopes for teachers and students to remotely undertake their own observing projects. A step forward is presented here, where we describe the experience of secondary school students attending professional observations of Venus at NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF) and, in a second observing …
Using 6 years of evaluation data we assess the medium- and long-term impacts upon a diverse range of students, teachers, and schools from participating in a programme of protracted university-mentored projects based in cutting-edge space science, astronomy, and particle physics research. After having completed their 6-month-long projects, the 14-18 year-old school students report having substantially increased in confidence relating to relevant scientific topics and methods as well as having developed numerous skills, outcomes which are corroborated by teachers. There is evidence that the proj…
La Serena School for Data Science is a multidisciplinary program with six editions so far and a constant format: during 10-14 days, a group of $\sim$30 students (15 from the US, 15 from Chile and 1-3 from Caribbean countries) and $\sim$9 faculty gather in La Serena (Chile) to complete an intensive program in Data Science with emphasis in applications to astronomy and bio-sciences. The students attend theoretical and hands-on sessions, and, since early on, they work in multidisciplinary groups with their "mentors" (from the faculty) on real data science problems. The SOC and LOC of the school h…
Despite the negative stereotypes still overshadowing community colleges, scores of freshmen nationwide are deliberately beginning their college careers at these institutions, and the numbers are increasing more than twice as fast as those of four-year schools. Approximately 300,000 of these students take introductory astronomy each year as the last formal exposure to science most of them will ever have, and at least one-third of these students do so at a community or two-year college. The importance of investing in and devoting resources and training to serve this population - everyone, demogr…
Secondary school teachers often lack the necessary content background in astronomy to teach such a course confidently. Our theory of change postits that an increased confidence level will increase student retention in astronomy and related STEM fields. Beyond the science content knowledge though, teachers need opportunities to embed the content in pedagogically sound practices, and with appropriate technology tools. We report on our interdisciplinary approach to designing, developing, fielding, and iteratively improving the San Antonio Teacher Training Astronomy Academy (SATTAA), an annually o…
The COVID-19 pandemic imposed profound changes on the way we think about undergraduate physics education. Online courses became mainstream. Exam formats were reimagined. Digital whiteboards replaced face-to-face discussions. Laboratory classes were outfitted with home-delivered supply kits. And all of us developed a more intimate knowledge of Greek letters and symbols (delta, omicron, etc.) than we might have comfortably liked to admit. Having weathered these transformations from the point of view of both an undergraduate student (S.L.J.) and classroom instructors (A.H. and C.L.S.), we have fo…
Collaboration among students is fundamental for knowledge building and competency development. Yet, the effectiveness of student collaboration depends on the extent that these interactions occur under conditions that favor commitment, trust, and decision-making among those who interact. The sanitary situation and the transition to emergency remote teaching have added new challenges for collaboration, mainly because now, Information and Communication Technologies mediate students' interactions. This study first explores the effectiveness of different collaborative relationships on physics from …
Back in mid 2018, we were organizing eXtreme19, a conference on astro-particle physics held in Padova on the topic of extremely energetic emission from galaxies. For the preparation of the graphical material in support of the conference we seeked for a collaboration with talented art students. To this purpose, we joined the Italian programme PCTO (Percorsi per le Competenze Trasversali e per l Orientamento) of high school student stages in job centers. Emily, Beatrice, and Chiara from the high school Liceo Artistico Statale Amedeo Modigliani in Padova accepted our invitation and started a 6-mo…
This article proposes and discusses qualitatively the use of a didactic board game in Science Education for high school students. The game contemplates in an interdisciplinary way the areas of Physics, Biology, Chemistry and Astronomy and is based on the development of the cognitive structure of the students through the act of drawing the concepts addressed in the classroom, also aiming at socialization through teamwork and the inclusion of students with hearing impairment. The game was created in a physics teacher education course and also aims to promote reflection on teaching practice and t…
Understanding Growth Mindset Practices in an Introductory Physical Computing Classroom: High School Students' Engagement with Debugging by Design Activities
