A summer camp experience of primary student: Let’s learn astronomy, explore the space summer camp

Students approach science lessons with their own ideas about the natural world. These ideas, though logical to the students at times, are not scientific most of the time. These kinds of ideas can be named as alternative concepts, misconceptions, and children’s fixed ideas about science (Yair, 2001). It is known that students have many misconceptions about science (Pfundt & Duit, 1998). Astronomy is one of the main subjects in which students have misconceptions. Nowadays, although have started to talk about voyages to the moon, space tourism, etc., it has been observed that actual knowledge about astronomy and space is quite limited. Moreover, students’ perceptions of these subjects do not reflect scientific reality. In primary school education where students begin to learn about nature and the universe, students have misconceptions about the Earth, our home in the universe. Some primary school students’ express that the Earth is flat, square or rectangular. Furthermore, children who know that the world is a sphere believe that there is a geographic end of the Earth and if we reach it, we may fall off. The reason behind these beliefs may be the inappropriate expressions used when talking about the world in our daily lives. It is generally said the Earth is round, they assume it to be round like a flat tray (Vosniadou, Skopeliti, & Ikospentaki, 2005). Some other students think that at the end of the day and the night while the moon and sun replace each other, the other one goes underground. Although students state that the Earth is a sphere they believe that living on the edges of the world is impossible. They imagine that the people living on the lower part could not stand up, otherwise they would fall off (Vosniadou, 1991; Vosniadou & Brewer, 1994; Vosniadou, Skopeliti, & Ikospentaki, 2004). Similarly, the following misconceptions are often seen; all stars are white, the moon doesn’t revolve on its axis as we only see the same side, the moon disappears during the day, the phases of the moon are a result of the Earth’s shadow, Mars is a hot planet because of its color, the sun is not actually a star, a light-year is actually a time slice (Lunar and Planetary Institute 2006).

Although the subject of astronomy is more interesting than other the science subjects for primary school students (Dede, 1995; Winn, 1995), students often have difficulty in understanding complex astronomical concepts. Three dimensional and dynamic concepts such as day/night cycles, seasons, eclipses, phases of the moon, and movements of planets can be given as examples. Moreover, as astronomy subjects include numerous detailed and abstract concepts, they are difficult subjects for students to understand (Yair, Schur & Mintz, 2003; Dunlop, 2000). Although teaching astronomy is a main component of science education, students who have difficulty in learning abstract astronomical concepts make teaching astronomy difficult (Dunlop, 2000).

When the literature is reviewed, it is seen that there are studies to overcome these misconceptions (Korkmaz, 2009; Aktamış & Ünal Çoban, 2009; Taylor, Barker, & Jones, 2003; Alkış, 2006). Furthermore, studies conducted by Emrahoğlu & Öztürk (2009), Frede (2008), Trumper, (2006), Fong, Percy, & Woodrruff (2004), Barab et al. (2000) and Ünsal et al. (2000) stated that some teachers and candidate teachers also have misconceptions and a lack of knowledge in astronomical concepts. The students should structure their knowledge in subjects about nature, the universe, astronomy and space. In addition to that, it is important that their interest in these subjects be encouraged as well. When primary education curricula are examined, it is generally seen that astronomy subjects are placed at the end of the instructional flow and addressed at the end of the instructional term. Additionally, some teachers are not at the required cognitive and affective level for teaching astronomy in terms of knowledge base, attitudes and motivation towards teaching astronomy, resulting in insufficient importance being applied to the teaching of astronomy.

In the nature of science education, students need to be able to observe what is going on around them. Students should be able to interpret their surroundings in their minds and apply this knowledge to new events and situations. In this regard the role of a teacher is to provide materials that arouse interest and encourage learning. However, the prevailing idea in the education system is; learning occurs by transferring exactly the same knowledge from source to the student. Science has been affected by this teaching method and teaching science based on knowledge transfer, and perceiving students as passive receivers has become widespread. Teachers cannot avoid the idea that the more knowledge transferred to the students, the more they learn, and as a result what is learned can only reach the short term memory and therefore meaningful learning doesn’t take place (Chen et al., 2007). The teaching method embraced by most teachers and based on the above understanding includes only images, pictures and two dimensional animations. It is thought that this approach inhibits the effective teaching of astronomy in classes. In traditional methods, teachers do not sufficiently guide students in understanding difficult and complex astronomy concepts. In addition to that teachers have difficulty in teaching certain concepts. So students have incorrect knowledge and ideas about astronomy and astronomy concepts (Winn, 1995; Ojala, 1997).

One of the common misunderstandings, that the Earth we live in is not a part of the Universe, can be overcome through science camps where they can enjoy playing and learning without worrying about things such as exams.. These camps are known to be very effective on structuring astronomy subjects among students. According to the National Research Council (NRC) (1998) teaching science outside of formal teaching activities may be an effective method for making use of students’ spare time in order to improve their affective learning fields as well as their social and cognitive ones. Science camps, be seen as a form of these informal learning areas, create opportunities for children and adults to share their interests and emphasizes the richness and creativity by enabling them to choose role models in science related occupations. Our aim with “Let’s Learn Astronomy, Explore the Space Summer Science Camp” (LLAESSC) is creating awareness about Astronomy and Space in daily life and increasing scientific literacy levels related to primary education program activities among students. Students from the Social Services and Child Protection Institute (SSCPI) and Boarding Primary District Schools (RPBS) participated in the science camp. By participating in the camp, students from Social Services and Child Protection Institute (SSCPI) and Regional Primary Boarding Schools (RPBS) experienced scientific activities about basic astronomy subjects related to the Earth and Universe apart from their school. It is expected that they implicitly gained awareness about scientific information. Therefore, this study attempts to present the effects of astronomy science camp on students’ comprehension of astronomy and their ideas about scientific information.

Problems:

Do LLAESSC make a difference in the SSCPI and RPBS participants’ ideas regarding scientific knowledge when compare to their ideas before the camp?
Do LLAESSC make a difference in the SSCPI and RPBS participants understanding of concepts about the Earth and Universe when compare to their achievement before the camp?
How do SSCPI and RPBS participants of LLAESSC express their ideas about the Earth and Universe in their drawings and written compositions?