Yes, Your Methods Section is Boring, But Critically Important

When judging how important and influential a published article is in a refereed journal, the most important thing one might pay attention to is the evidence-based conclusion and the implications of that conclusion (Slater, 2019). At the same time, another way to judge an article’s influence is by looking at how frequently the article is cited, using a tool such as scholar.google.com: The caveat to high citation numbers being a great measure of importance and value is that sometimes a published paper is highly cited simply because its conclusions are incorrect and many authors are capitalizing on the opportunity to correct its mistaken message (Slater, 2018a). A third important component to a great paper is how well the research is situated in the existing literature landscape - the compulsory literature review. The best papers clearly specify the research question’s space by stating what is known, what is not known, and why the paper in question fills an important gap in the scholarly community’s understanding (Slater, 2018a). What is missing in the most common list of criteria for greatness - conclusions, citations, and situation in the existing literature - is an acknowledgement of the critical importance of the methods section.

Young Children’s Ideas About Astronomy

Young children express interest and understanding about science topics through everyday conversations with parents. Little is known about how much interest preschool-aged children show in astronomy. Using a diary report methodology, we asked parents in three communities in coastal California to keep track of conversations with their three to five-year-old children about nature. The communities varied in demographics, including one community with predominantly European-American families, one community with predominantly Latinx families, and one community with families from a variety of backgrounds. Overall, young children showed interest in astronomy through initiation and engagement in conversations about a variety of astronomical objects and events; this was consistent across gender, age, and community. Across all three communities, conversations about astronomy accounted for approximately 15% of the conversations about nature, ranking in the top three most frequent topics for each group. Children initiated the vast majority of conversations with their parents, including those about astronomy. Within astronomy, children were most interested in the sun, moon, stars, and day or night sky. Thus, while science educators may see astronomy as too complex for young children, children observe and comment on astronomical phenomena as part of their everyday life. Finding ways to support educators and parents in talking with children about these observations may productively build on this early astronomy interest and position children for greater understanding and engagement in this domain.

A Hybrid Hands-On And Computer Simulation Laboratory Activity For The Teaching Of Astronomical Parallax

As computer-based visualization techniques are becoming more important across the landscape of astronomy education, this pre-test/post-test study using the Size, Scale, and Structure Concept Inventory (S3CI) looked at the impact of using a hybrid combination of hands-on and computer-based activities on the learning of five semesters of non-science majoring undergraduates learning about the concept of astronomical parallax. The hybrid laboratory activity comprises an outdoor component where students use the parallax method to determine the distances to nearby objects, and a computer visualization component using the American Astronomical Society’s WorldWide Telescope astronomical visualization software. This activity was implemented as part of an undergraduate astronomy course for non-science majors. Based on an analysis of student responses, we conclude that this activity can help students understand the parallax method as applied in the astronomical realm. However, even after instruction, students had difficulty recognizing this method as the primary means for determining distances in astronomy.

Editors Note: Your Article Benefits From A Compelling Conclusion

In this era of Internet-based, open-access journals, the careful construction of a powerful conclusion section is vital to publishing an influential and highly cited paper. The most compelling opening paragraphs for the conclusion section clearly provides: (i) the overarching question that the study is trying to answer; (ii) a simplified statement about the method used to gather evidence; (iii) an unambiguously clear answer to the research question; (iv) a paragraph about why we as a community should care about these results; and (v) a specific listing of what the next fruitful steps are needed by the broader research community. By following this simply five-step formula, authors are much more likely to provide readers—and peer reviewers—with a compelling conclusion section that results in a more frequently cited and widely influential paper.

A Logistic Regression Model Comparing Astronomy And Non-Astronomy Teachers In Québec’s Elementary Schools

Based on the results of an online survey of 500 Québec’s elementary (K-6) teachers conducted in 2015 that probed the way respondents teach astronomy to their classrooms, their background in S&T, their pre-service education, their aims and goals for astronomy teaching, their attitude toward teaching astronomy, the resources and materials they use, their view on the effectiveness of pre- and in-service training, and their need for in-service training, we present a logistic regression model comparing elementary teachers in our survey that teach astronomy to their class (“Astronomy” teachers, N = 244) and those who don’t (“Non-astronomy” teachers, N = 256), to reveal factors that seem to facilitate or hinder astronomy teaching in Québec’s elementary classrooms. Based on the model, several ways to enhance the teaching of astronomy in Québec’s K-6 classrooms are proposed: offer high-quality pre- and in-service training in astronomy to elementary teachers, raise the profile of science teaching in elementary schools, and help teachers realize the importance of teaching astronomy in their classrooms to cover the curriculum standards.

Does Your Article Need A Methods Or Methodology Sub-Section?

In the process of writing a discipline-based science education research article for the Journal of Astronomy & Earth Sciences Education, authors are faced with the question of titling each of the article’s subjections. Some editors and authors advocate a METHODS section whereas others advocate for a METHODOLOGY(IES) section. What do we currently prefer in JAESE? The answer is an unsatisfying, “it depends.” The vast majority of papers in the JAESE Journal of Astronomy & Earth Sciences Education use a traditional METHODS section because most—but certainly not all—papers to date describe studies in which the method of inquiry is based on a balance of pragmatism, cost, usefulness, and actionable information. This is in contrast to a METHODOLOGY section, which takes time to argue for why a particular approach will be most fruitful for the question at hand. A robust mix of both are vitally important across the broader discipline-based science education researcher community.

Video Killed the Writing Assignment

An introductory Astronomy survey course is often taken to satisfy a college graduation requirement for non-science majors at colleges around the United States. In this course, material that can be broadly categorized into topics related to “the sky”, “the Solar System”, “the Galaxy”, and “cosmology” is discussed. Even with the wide variety of topics in these categories, though, students may not be 100% interested in the course content, and it is almost certain that a specific topic about which a student wishes to learn is not covered. To at least partly address these issues, to appeal to all of the students in this class, and to allow students to explore topics of their choice, a video project has been assigned to students at Albion College as a class activity. In this assignment, students are asked to create a video of a famous (or not) astronomer, astronomical object or discovery, or telescope observatory to present to the class. Students work in pairs to create a video that is original and imaginative and includes accurate scientific content. For this project, then, students use a familiar technology and exercise their creativity while learning a little (or a lot of) science along the way. Herein data on types and topics of videos, examples of videos, assignment requirements and grading rubrics, lessons learned, and student comments will be discussed and shared.

Evaluating Strategies To Collect Micrometeorites From Rainwater For Citizen Scientists

Micrometeorites originate from small pieces of rock from space colliding with the Earth’s atmosphere at high velocity, such as the Perseid meteors which hit the atmosphere at 60 km/s. When they do so, they burn up, causing a flash of light that we see as a meteor. Many groups have been successful collecting these particles using various devices. Such activities make great science projects for middle and high school students, and we plan to start a program to train students in the collecting methods and get them interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers. Various methods are used to collect micrometeorites from rainwater, but little work has been done to assess the most efficient method of collecting these particles from space and then analyzing them. Before we began our citizen science project, we determined that it was necessary to conduct a pilot project to determine the most effective method of collecting micrometeorites from rainwater. Four collecting methods were tried and the method that collected the most micrometeorites was also the simplest, that being a simple bucket under the downspout of the gutter system of a house and a magnet which is then run through the bucket to gather the meteorites.

Exploring Differences Among Student Populations During Climate Graph Reading Tasks: An Eye Tracking Study

Communicating climate information is challenging due to the interdisciplinary nature of the topic along with compounding cognitive and affective learning challenges. Graphs are a common representation used by scientists to communicate evidence of climate change. However, it is important to identify how and why individuals on the continuum of expertise navigate graphical data differently as this has implications for effective communication of this information. We collected and analyzed eye-tracking metrics of geoscience graduate students and novice undergraduate students while viewing graphs displaying climate information. Our findings indicate that during fact-extraction tasks, novice undergraduates focus proportionally more attention on the question, title and axes graph elements, whereas geoscience graduate students spend proportionally more time viewing and interpreting data. This same finding was enhanced during extrapolation tasks. Undergraduate novices were also more likely to describe general trends, while graduate students identified more specific patterns. Undergraduates who performed high on the pre-test measuring graphing skill, viewed graphs more similar to graduate students than their peers who performed lower on the pre-test.

To Teach Or Not To Teach Astronomy, That Is The Question: Results Of A Survey Of Québec’s Elementary Teachers

To determine the extent of astronomy teaching in Quebec’s schools, we conducted an online survey of 500 Québec’s elementary (K-6) teachers between January and March 2015. With a 35-items questionnaire, we wanted to find out how these elementary teachers teach astronomy (or not) to their classrooms, what is their background in Science & Technology (S&T), what pre-service education they received, the reasons why they teach astronomy or not to their students, the resources and materials they have at their disposal, their perception of the effectiveness of pre- and in-service training they received, and their perceived needs for in-service training. Results show that the majority of teachers surveyed didn’t study science beyond high school and have had no experience in S&T employment before becoming a teacher. We also found that only half of the teachers surveyed actually teach astronomy to their class, mostly by using reading and writing material, and that 39% of “Astronomy teachers” in our sample teach astronomy to their class between 6 and 10 hours per year. Major hurdles to astronomy teaching perceived by the teachers in our survey are a lack of experience and training in astronomy, a lack of resources and equipment, inadequate classroom arrangement, and their own, self-perceived incompetence in astronomy. Pre-service education in astronomy, in science and in science teaching is also considered mainly unsatisfactory, or non-existent in the case of astronomy; in-service training in astronomy is mainly composed of conversations with colleagues. Most respondents thus consider in-service training in astronomy to be inefficient or inexistent.