Speaker
Dr
Marco Kragten
(Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences)
Description
In this workshop we present three lesson activities to teach core (astro)physics concepts at pre-university level which students find difficult to grasp with traditional interventions: star properties, star states and the fusion-gravity balance. In each activity, students construct and simulate a conceptual cause-effect model. An evaluation study in nine Dutch classrooms showed that the star properties lesson significantly increased students’ understanding of the underlying causal relationships. The lessons were created as part of the Stargazing Live! project, which inspires students with an interactive planetarium lesson incorporating real astrophysical data before triggering deep learning with the conceptual modelling activities.
| Education level | Age 15-18 (Secondary education) |
|---|---|
| Physics topic | Astronomy and Astrophysics |
| Research focus | Innovative instructional strategies and pathways |
| Research method | Mixed method (qualitative & quantitative) |
| Organizing preference criteria | Track |
Author
Dr
Marco Kragten
(Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences)
Co-authors
Dr
Bert Bredeweg
(Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences)
Joanna Holt
(Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences & Netherlands Research School for Astronomy)
