Shaw-IAU Workshops by the OAE

Explaining the apparent motion of the Sun and stars is challenging for students. To help students reason about it and support them in switching between different perspectives, educators use various representations of the celestial sphere (e.g., the planetarium or a celestial globe). However, we suspect that students (and perhaps educators) may not fully grasp the underlying model of the (representations of the) celestial sphere, as well as its possibilities and limitations. This lack of understanding can lead to misinterpretations or overgeneralizations. As a first step in studying students’ understanding of the celestial sphere, we constructed a framework to categorize different representations of the celestial sphere model according to the perspectives and reference frames they use.

About Judith Vandewiere

Judith Vandewiere is a PhD researcher at the Physics and Astronomy department of KU Leuven, where she also completed her Master's degree. Her research interest includes student's understanding of the celestial sphere.
Besides doing research she works as a science educator at the Brussels' Planetarium.