Students' Mental Models About The Apparent Motion Of The Sun And Stars.
TalkNaked-eye astronomy
3rd Shaw-IAU Workshop
Wednesday Oct. 13, 2021
UTC: 9:10 a.m. - 9:15 a.m.
Thursday Oct. 14, 2021
UTC: 6:40 p.m. - 6:45 p.m.
Hans Bekaert (KU Leuven, Department of Physics and Astronomy and LESEC)
Coauthors: Mieke De Cock (KU Leuven, Department of Physics and Astronomy and LESEC), Hans Van Winckel (KU Leuven, Department of Physics and Astronomy), Wim Van Dooren (KU Leuven, Centre for Instructional Psychology and Technology), An Steegen (KU Leuven, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences & LESE)
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We administered the AMoSS test with 12 multiple choice questions, which focus on distinctions between different aspects of the apparent motion of the Sun and stars, to 16-17 years old students of 6 Belgian secondary schools (N=410). We also asked them to explain their choices. The analysis of their answers reveal that, despite instruction, most students only demonstrate a rudimentary understanding of the apparent motion of the Sun and stars for different locations of the observer and different times during the year. On top of that, there is a clear distinction between the replies for the Sun and stars. Thanks to the classification system we have developed to categorize the explanations, we are able to identify different student mental models about the apparent motion of the Sun and stars.
About Hans Bekaert
Hans Bekaert has been a physics teacher in secondary school for more than 25 years. In 2017 he became a physics tutor for the Faculty of Science at KU Leuven. In 2018 he started working part time as a PhD student in the Astronomy and (Astro)Physics Education Research group of Mieke De Cock at the department of Physics and Astronomy. His research on learning opportunities in a planetarium environment is supervised by Mieke De Cock, An Steegen, Wim Van Dooren and Hans Van Winckel
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