Related papers: Shaping Attitudes Toward Science in an Introductor…
This White Paper is a call to action for astronomers to respond to climate change with a large structural transition within our profession. Many astronomers are deeply concerned about climate change and act upon it in their personal and…
Recent advances in our understanding of the Universe have revolutionized our view of its structure, composition and evolution. However, these new ideas have not necessarily been used to improve the teaching of introductory astronomy…
To keep current global warming below 1.5{\deg}C compared with the pre-industrial era, measures must be taken as quickly as possible in all spheres of society. Astronomy must also make its contribution. In this proceeding, and during the…
The traditional university science curriculum was designed to train specialists in specific disciplines. However, in universities all over the world, science students are going into increasingly diverse careers and the current model does…
The anecdotal connection between an interest in science fiction and career aspirations in astrophysics is well established. However strong statistical evidence for such a connection, and a quantitative assessment of its prevalence, has been…
The impact of exoplanet science on both the scientific community and on the general public is presented through various indicators and examples. It is estimated that about 3-4% of all refereed astronomy articles focus on exoplanets, and…
The global climate crisis poses new risks to humanity, and with them, new challenges to the practices of professional astronomy. Avoiding the more catastrophic consequences of global warming by more than 1.5 degrees requires an immediate…
Physics community is generally concerned about the decrease in Physics enrollment. Due to the deficiency of specially qualified Physics teachers, high school Physics is sometimes taught by general science teachers who may not be trained to…
Statistics is running the risk of appearing irrelevant to today's undergraduate students. Today's undergraduate students are familiar with data science projects and they judge statistics against what they have seen. Statistics, especially…
As astronomy enters an era defined by global telescope networks, petabyte-scale surveys, and powerful computational tools, the longstanding goals of astronomy education, particularly introductory ``ASTRO101'', but equally encompassing both…
We present a programmatic study of physicists' and astronomers' attitudes toward education and public outreach (EPO) using 131 survey responses from members of the Dark Energy Survey. We find a disparity between the types of EPO activities…
The research presented in this thesis was motivated by the need to improve introductory physics courses. Introductory physics courses are generally the first courses in which students learn to create models to solve complex problems.…
Physics in Films is an alternative version of the physical science course offered to non-science majors at the University of Central Florida. The course uses the popularity of Hollywood films to generate interest in science and to engage…
This article looks at philosophical aspects and questions that modern astrophysical research gives rise to. Other than cosmology, astrophysics particularly deals with understanding phenomena and processes operating at "intermediate" cosmic…
We report on seven years of attitudinal data using the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey from University Modeling Instruction (UMI) sections of introductory physics at Florida International University. This work expands upon…
Introductory undergraduate courses in classical physics stress a perspective that can be characterized as realist; from this perspective, all physical properties of a classical system can be simultaneously specified and thus determined at…
We investigated the epistemological conceptions of the uruguayan Physics teachers and future Physics teachers through the application of the CLASS test (Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey), one of the most accepted instruments…
The decline in student interest in science and technology is a major concern in the western world. One approach to reversing this decline is to introduce modern physics concepts much earlier in the school curriculum. We have used the…
Understanding the heterogeneity of mechanisms that form public attitudes towards science and technology policymaking is essential to the establishment of an effective public engagement platform. Using the 2011 public opinion survey data…
Diversity, equity and inclusion are the science leadership issues of our time. As our nation and the field of astronomy grow more diverse, we find ourselves in a position of enormous potential and opportunity: a multitude of studies show…