The Lecture-Tutorial curriculum development project produced a set of 29 learner-centered classroom instructional materials for a large-enrollment introductory astronomy survey course for non-science majors. The Lecture-Tutorials are instructional materials intended for use by collaborative student learning groups, and are designed to be integrated into existing courses with conventional lectures. These instructional materials offer classroom-ready learner-centered activities that do not require any outside equipment or drastic course revision for implementation. Each 15-minute Lecture-Tutorial poses a sequence of conceptually challenging, Socratic dialogue-driven questions, along with graphs and data tables, all designed to encourage students to reason critically about difficult concepts in astronomy. The materials are based on research into student beliefs and reasoning difficulties, and use proven instructional strategies. The Lecture-Tutorials have been field-tested for effectiveness at various institutions, which represent a wide range of student populations and instructional settings. In addition to materials development, a second effort of this project focused on the assessment of changes in students' conceptual understanding and attitudes toward learning astronomy as a result of both lecture and the subsequent use of Lecture-Tutorials. Quantitative and qualitative assessments were completed using a precourse, postlecture, and post-Lecture-Tutorial instrument, along with focus group interviews, respectively. Collectively, the evaluation data illustrate that conventional lectures alone helped students make statistically significant-yet unsatisfactory-gains in understanding (with students scoring at only the 50% level postlecture). Further, the data illustrate that the use of Lecture-Tutorials helped students achieve statistically significant gains beyond those attained after lecture (with students scoring at the 70% level post-Lecture-Tutorial). Quantitative evaluation of student attitudes showed no significant gains over the semester, but students reported that they considered the Lecture-Tutorials to be one of the most valuable components of the course.

We present the results of a national study on the teaching and learning of astronomy as taught in general education, non-science-major, introductory astronomy courses. Nearly 4000 students enrolled in 69 sections of courses taught by 36 different instructors at 31 institutions completed ͑preand post-instruction͒ the Light and Spectroscopy Concept Inventory ͑LSCI͒ from Fall 2006 to Fall 2007. The classes varied in size and were from all types of institutions, including 2-and 4-year colleges and universities. Normalized gain scores for each class were calculated. Pre-instruction LSCI scores were clustered around ϳ25%, independent of class size and institution type, and normalized gain scores varied from about −0.07 to 0.50. To estimate the fraction of classroom time spent on learner-centered, active-engagement instruction we developed and administered an Interactivity Assessment Instrument ͑IAI͒. Our results suggest that the differences in gains were due to instruction in the classroom, not the type of class or institution. We also found that higher interactivity classes had the highest gains, confirming that interactive learning strategies are capable of increasing student conceptual understanding. However, the wide range of gain scores seen for both lower and higher interactivity classes suggests that the use of interactive learning strategies is not sufficient by itself to achieve high student gain.

This article describes the development and validation of the Light and Spectroscopy Concept Inventory (LSCI), a 26-item diagnostic test designed (1) to measure students' conceptual understanding of topics related to light and spectroscopy, and (2) to evaluate the effectiveness of instructional interventions in promoting meaningful learning gains in an introductory college astronomy course. We also present the final field-tested version of the LSCI for general use by the astronomy education community. Process of test construction:1. Identify the primary purpose for which test scores will be used. 2. Define the concept domain to be addressed by the test. 3. Construct and review an initial pool of items. 4. Hold preliminary item tryouts and revise as necessary. 5. Field-test items with a large sample representative of the population for whom the test is intended. 6. Determine statistical properties of item scores and, when appropriate, eliminate items that do not meet pre-established criteria. 7. Conduct reliability and validity studies for the final form of the test. PURPOSE AND SPECIFICATIONSAs discussed in our previous paper (Bardar (Weeks) et al. 2005), the purpose of developing a Light and Spectroscopy Concept Inventory for the introductory college astronomy survey course was twofold: (1) to produce a standardized assessment instrument for evaluating individual students' conceptual understanding of topics central to the course, and (2) to produce a tool for evaluating and comparing the relative effectiveness of various instructional methods in promoting conceptual change.Through an extensive review of journal articles and surveys of faculty, syllabi, and textbooks, we came to the conclusion that the electromagnetic spectrum and the nature of light are widely acknowledged within the astronomy education community as the most taught and most important topics in introductory astronomy courses (Slater & Adams 2003;Slater et al. 2001;Zeilik & Morris-Dueer 2005) and as topics with which students struggle (Brecher 1991;Zeilik, Schau, & Mattern 1998). These topics therefore present themselves as a natural choice for a central theme around which to develop a concept inventory that would allow astronomy instructors to compare the success of the teaching and learning that takes place in the widest possible range of introductory courses.The concept domain of the LSCI, shown below, was chosen to reflect the most commonly taught concepts addressed by the majority of courses within the astronomical community. Concepts addressed by the LSCI:The nature of the electromagnetic spectrum, including the interrelationships of wavelength, frequency, energy, and speed Interpretation of Doppler shift as an indication of motion rather than color of an object The correlation between peak wavelength and temperature of a blackbody radiator Relationships between luminosity, temperature, and surface area of a blackbody radiator The connection between spectral features and underlying physical processes ITEM DEVELOPMENTTo minimize the time and e...

To explore the frequency and range of student ideas regarding the Big Bang, nearly 1,000 students from middle school, secondary school, and college were surveyed and asked if they had heard of the Big Bang and, if so, to describe it. In analyzing their responses, we uncovered an unexpected result that more than half of the students who stated that they had heard of the Big Bang also provided responses that suggest they believe that the Big Bang was a phenomenon that organized pre-existing matter. To further examine this result, a second group of college students was asked specifically to describe what existed or occurred before, during, and after the Big Bang. Nearly 70% gave responses clearly stating that matter existed prior to the Big Bang. These results are interpreted as strongly suggesting that most students are answering these questions by employing an internally consistent element of knowledge or reasoning (often referred to as a phenomenological primitive, or p-prim), consistent with the idea that "you can't make something from nothing." These results inform the debate about the extent to which college students have pre-existing notions that are poised to interfere with instructional efforts about contemporary physics and astronomy topics.

This research concerns the development and assessment of a program of introductory astronomy conceptual exercises called ranking tasks. These exercises were designed based on results from science education research, learning theory, and classroom pilot studies. The investigation involved a single-group repeated measures experiment across eight key introductory astronomy topics with 253 students at the University of Arizona. Student understanding of these astronomy topics was assessed before and after traditional instruction in an introductory astronomy course. Collaborative ranking tasks were introduced after traditional instruction on each topic, and student understanding was evaluated again. Results showed that average scores on multiple-choice tests across the eight astronomy topics increased from 32% before instruction, to 61% after traditional instruction, to 77% after the ranking-task exercises. A Likert scale attitude survey found that 83% of the students participating in the 16-week study thought that the rankingtask exercises helped their understanding of core astronomy concepts. Based on these results, we assert that supplementing traditional lecture-based instruction with collaborative ranking-task exercises can significantly improve student understanding of core astronomy topics.

Concept inventories (CIs)-typically multiple-choice instruments that focus on a single or small subset of closely related topics-have been used in science education for more than a decade. This paper describes the development and validation of a new CI for astronomy, the Star Properties Concept Inventory (SPCI). Questions cover the areas of stellar properties (focussing primarily on mass, temperature, luminosity, and lifetime), nuclear fusion, and star formation. Distracters were developed from known alternative conceptions and reasoning difficulties commonly held by students. The SPCI was tested through an iterative process where different testing formats (open-ended, multiple-choice + explain, and multiple-choice) were compared to ensure that the distracters were in fact the most common among the testing population. Content validity was established through expert reviews by 26 astronomy instructors. The SPCI Version 3 was then tested in multiple introductory undergraduate astronomy courses for non-science majors. Post-test scores (out of 23 possible) were significantly greater (M ¼ 11.8, SD ¼ 3.87) than the pre-test scores (M ¼ 7.09, SD ¼ 2.73). The low post-test score-only 51.3%-could indicate a need for changing instructional strategies on the topics of stars and star formation.

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The Zooniverse projects turn everyday people into "citizen scientists" who work online with real data to assist scientists in conducting research on a variety of topics related to galaxies, exoplanets, lunar craters, and solar flares, among others. This paper describes our initial study to assess the conceptual knowledge and reasoning abilities of citizen scientists participating in two Zooniverse projects: Galaxy Zoo and Moon Zoo. In order to measure their knowledge and abilities, we developed two new assessment instruments, the Zooniverse Astronomical Concept Survey (ZACS) and the Lunar Cratering Concept Inventory (LCCI). We found that citizen scientists with the highest level of participation in the Galaxy Zoo and Moon Zoo projects also have the highest average correct scores on the items of the ZACS and LCCI. However, the limited nature of the data provided by Zooniverse participants prevents us from being able to evaluate the statistical significance of this finding, and we make no claim about whether there is a causal relationship between one's participation in Galaxy Zoo or Moon Zoo and one's level of conceptual understanding or reasoning ability on the astrophysical topics assessed by the ZACS or the LCCI. Overall, both the ZACS and the LCCI provide Zooniverse's citizen scientists with items that offer a wide range of difficulties. Using the data from the small subset of participants who responded to all items of the ZACS, we found evidence suggesting the ZACS is a reliable instrument (a ¼ 0.78), although twenty-one of its forty items appear to have point biserials less than 0.3. The work reported here provides significant insight into the strengths and limitations of various methods for administering assessments to citizen scientists. Researchers who wish to study the knowledge and abilities of citizen scientists in the future should be sure to design their research methods to avoid the pitfalls identified by our initial findings.