Mission
The education mission of the American Astronomical Society is to optimize the contributions of both the AAS and its members to enhanced science literacy for all, provide encouragement and to broaden educational opportunities for all, with particular attention to groups under-served in the physical sciences, and ensure that undergraduate and graduate programs in astronomy prepare not only the next generation of professional astronomers but also broadly trained individuals with strong technical and scientific backgrounds.
Goals
Its goals are to improve undergraduate and graduate education in astronomy and promote science literacy for all. In the Society, and more widely in the astronomical community, advocate greater attention to, encouragement of, and rewards for both excellence in astronomy education and research on teaching and learning in astronomy. Advocate astronomy and astronomy education in national and state education forums, to funding agencies, and to the scientific and education communities.
Recent Articles from Astronomy Education Review:
3-12-2012 Student Understanding of Gravity in Introductory College Astronomy Kathryn E. Williamson and Shannon Willoughby
Twenty-four free-response questions were developed to explore introductory college astronomy students’ understanding of gravity in a variety of contexts, including in and around Earth, throughout the solar system, and in hypothetical situations. Questions were separated into three questionnaires, ... [AER 11, 010105 (2012)] published Mon Mar 12, 2012.
2-2-2012 A Study of General Education Astronomy Students’ Understandings of Cosmology. Part IV. Common Difficulties Students Experience with Cosmology Colin S. Wallace, Edward E. Prather, and Douglas K. Duncan
This is our fourth paper in our five paper series describing our national study of general education astronomy students’ conceptual and reasoning difficulties with cosmology. While previous papers in this series focused on the processes by which we collected and quantitatively analyzed our data, t ... [AER 11, 010104 (2012)] published Thu Feb 02, 2012.
2-2-2012 A Study of General Education Astronomy Students’ Understandings of Cosmology. Part III. Evaluating Four Conceptual Cosmology Surveys: An Item Response Theory Approach Colin S. Wallace, Edward E. Prather, and Douglas K. Duncan
This is the third of five papers detailing our national study of general education astronomy students’ conceptual and reasoning difficulties with cosmology. In this paper, we use item response theory to analyze students’ responses to three out of the four conceptual cosmology surveys we developed. ... [AER 11, 010103 (2012)] published Thu Feb 02, 2012.
1-24-2012 Improving Student Attitudes about Learning Science and Student Scientific Reasoning Skills Douglas K. Duncan and Leilani Arthurs
Student attitudes about learning science and student ideas about the nature of science were compared at the end of two astronomy courses taught in Fall 2007, a course with a traditional astronomy curriculum and a transformed course, whose traditional astronomy curriculum was supplemented by an emb ... [AER 11, 010102 (2012)] published Tue Jan 24, 2012.
1-23-2012 Urban Middle-School Science Teachers Beliefs about the Influence of Their Astronomer-Educator Partnerships on Students’ Astronomy Learner Characteristics Rommel J. Miranda
This qualitative study investigates the extent to which urban middle-school science teachers’ beliefs about their students’ astronomy learner characteristics were influenced by their partnership with an astronomer in their classroom. Twelve urban middle-school science teachers were interviewed aft ... [AER 11, 010101 (2012)] published Mon Jan 23, 2012.
12-22-2011 Using Smartphone Camera Technology to Explore Stellar Parallax: Method, Results, and Reactions Michael T. Fitzgerald, David H. McKinnon, and Lena Danaia et al.
The use of a smartphone, with both still and video capabilities, to develop the concepts surrounding stellar parallax is described. The hands-on activities generate useful discussion amongst high school students. Reactions of both students and teachers are presented.
... [AER 10, 010108 (2011)] published Thu Dec 22, 2011.
12-21-2011 Astronomy Apps for Mobile Devices, A First Catalog Andrew Fraknoi
The explosion in mobile apps in the last few years has meant that many new astronomy applications have become available. This catalog is a first attempt to make a list of those of particular interest to astronomy educators. For each mobile app, we give the title, then the developer (in parentheses ... [AER 10, 010302 (2011)] published Wed Dec 21, 2011.
12-15-2011 A Study of General Education Astronomy Students’ Understandings of Cosmology. Part II. Evaluating Four Conceptual Cosmology Surveys: A Classical Test Theory Approach Colin S. Wallace, Edward E. Prather, and Douglas K. Duncan
This is the second of five papers detailing our national study of general education astronomy students’ conceptual and reasoning difficulties with cosmology. This article begins our quantitative investigation of the data. We describe how we scored students’ responses to four conceptual cosmology s ... [Astron. Educ. Rev. 10, 010107 (2011)] published Thu Dec 15, 2011.
12-15-2011 A Study of General Education Astronomy Students’ Understandings of Cosmology. Part I. Development and Validation of Four Conceptual Cosmology Surveys Colin S. Wallace, Edward E. Prather, and Douglas K. Duncan
This is the first in a series of five articles describing a national study of general education astronomy students’ conceptual and reasoning difficulties with cosmology. In this paper, we describe the process by which we designed four new surveys to assess general education astronomy students’ con ... [Astron. Educ. Rev. 10, 010106 (2011)] published Thu Dec 15, 2011.
12-5-2011 The Lunar Phases Project: A Mental Model-Based Observational Project for Undergraduate Nonscience Majors Angela Osterman Meyer, Manuel J. Mon, and Susan T. Hibbard
We present our Lunar Phases Project, an ongoing effort utilizing students’ actual observations within a mental model building framework to improve student understanding of the causes and process of the lunar phases. We implement this project with a sample of undergraduate, nonscience major student ... [AER 10, 010203 (2011)] published Mon Dec 05, 2011.
