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Aversion to mathematics is a recognised and widespread problem. Following a review of the literature on this subject, this paper presents an education program which has been developed to test the hypothesis that transferring attention from…
Background: Dataset skills are used in STEM fields from healthcare work to astronomy research. Few fields explicitly teach students the skills to analyze datasets, and yet the increasing push for authentic science implies these skills…
Recent research using Reinforcement Learning (RL) to learn autonomous control for spacecraft operations has shown great success. However, a recent study showed their performance could be improved by changing the action space, i.e. control…
Many topics in introductory astronomy at the college or high-school level rely implicitly on using astronomical photographs and visual data in class. However, students bring many preconceptions to their understanding of these materials that…
Machine learning has rapidly become a tool of choice for the astronomical community. It is being applied across a wide range of wavelengths and problems, from the classification of transients to neural network emulators of cosmological…
Background: Proof Blocks is a software tool that enables students to construct proofs by assembling prewritten lines and gives them automated feedback. Prior work on learning gains from Proof Blocks has focused on comparing learning gains…
We describe our efforts to fully integrate generative artificial intelligence (GAI) into an introductory undergraduate astronomy course. Ordered by student perception of utility, GAI was used in instructional Python notebooks, in a subset…
Decades of research show that students learn more in classes that utilize active learning than they do in traditional, lecture-only classes. Active learning also reduces the achievement gaps that are often present between various…
Proper interpretation and understanding of astronomical data requires good knowledge of the data acquisition process. The increase in remote observing, queue observing, and the availability of large archived data products risk insulating…
The reform of the upper secondary school in Italy has recently introduced physics in the curricula of professional schools, in realities where it was previously absent. Many teachers, often with a temporary position, are obliged to teaching…
The effect of large language models (LLMs) in education is debated: Previous research shows that LLMs can help as well as hurt learning. In two pre-registered and incentivized laboratory experiments, we find no effect of LLMs on overall…
This paper presents the first item response theory (IRT) analysis of the national data set on introductory, general education, college-level astronomy teaching using the Light and Spectroscopy Concept Inventory (LSCI). We used the…
Large language models (LLMs) perform strongly on biological benchmarks, raising concerns that they may help novice actors acquire dual-use laboratory skills. Yet, whether this translates to improved human performance in the physical…
Laboratory courses for upper-division undergraduates often involve sophisticated equipment, relatively small class sizes, and extended hands-on projects. These courses present distinct challenges and opportunities for the physics education…
The rapid advancement of observational capabilities in astronomy has led to an exponential growth in the volume of light curve (LC) data, creating both opportunities and challenges for time-domain astronomy. Traditional analytical methods…
Understanding how an instructional approach shapes student's cognitive resources and engagement is central to improving undergraduate physics education especially for novice learners. This study examines how three instructional modalities…
There is a large variety of goals instructors have for laboratory courses, with different courses focusing on different subsets of goals. An often implicit, but crucial, goal is to develop students` attitudes, views, and expectations about…
Object detection at night is a challenging problem due to the absence of night image annotations. Despite several domain adaptation methods, achieving high-precision results remains an issue. False-positive error propagation is still…
Laboratory courses are key components of most undergraduate physics programs. Lab courses often aim to achieve the following learning outcomes: developing students' experimental skills, engaging students in authentic scientific practices,…
In the last years it is becoming more and more evident the importance in providing to the students, and people in general, a more realistic view on the scientific research world. In this framework many initiatives are beeing carried out to…