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Astronomy Education Review / Volume 11 / Issue 1 / RESEARCH AND APPLICATIONS

2012, AER, 11 (1), 010104, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/AER2011032

A Study of General Education Astronomy Students’ Understandings of Cosmology. Part IV. Common Difficulties Students Experience with Cosmology

Published 2 February 2012

Colin S. Wallace and Edward E. Prather

Center for Astronomy Education (CAE), Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721

Douglas K. Duncan

Department of Astrophysical and Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado 80309

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This is our fourth paper in our five paper series describing our national study of general education astronomy students’ conceptual and reasoning difficulties with cosmology. While previous papers in this series focused on the processes by which we collected and quantitatively analyzed our data, this paper presents the most common pre-instruction conceptual and reasoning difficulties identified from our qualitative analysis of students’ written responses. We discuss students’ naïve ideas about the expansion and evolution of the universe, the Big Bang, interpreting Hubble plots, and the evidence for dark matter in spiral galaxies.

© 2012 The American Astronomical Society

EDITORIALLY RELATED

    Related Articles

  1. A Study of General Education Astronomy Students' Understandings of Cosmology. Part III. Evaluating Four Conceptual Cosmology Surveys: An Item Response Theory Approach
    Colin S. Wallace et al.
    AER 11, 010103 (2012)AERSCZ000011000001010103000001
  2. A Study of General Education Astronomy Students' Understandings of Cosmology. Part I. Development and Validation of Four Conceptual Cosmology Surveys
    Colin S. Wallace et al.
    AER 10, 010106 (2011)AERSCZ000010000001010106000001
  3. A Study of General Education Astronomy Students' Understandings of Cosmology. Part II. Evaluating Four Conceptual Cosmology Surveys: A Classical Test Theory Approach
    Colin S. Wallace et al.
    AER 10, 010107 (2011)AERSCZ000010000001010107000001

KEYWORDS and PACS

Keywords

cosmic acceleration, cosmology, dark matter, physics education

PACS

  • 01.40.Di

    Course design and evaluation

  • 98.80.Bp

    Origin and formation of the Universe

PUBLICATION DATA

ISSN

1539-1515 (online)

Publisher

$abstract.society.value is a Member of CrossRef The American Astronomical Society

ARTICLE DATA

History
Received 24 October 2011
Accepted 23 December 2011
Published online 02 February 2012
Digital Object Identifier
http://dx.doi.org/10.3847/AER2011032

    References

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Figures (click on thumbnails to view enlargements)

FIG.1
One student’s responses to several items that elicit apparently widespread ideas about expansion and the Big Bang. The typed text reproduces the student’s written responses verbatim.

FIG.1 Download High Resolution Image (.zip file) | Export Figure to PowerPoint

FIG.2
Percent of students who said the temperature of the universe increased, decreased, remained constant, or changed over time. Black bars represent responses from the fall 2009, gray bars from the spring 2010, and white bars from the fall 2010. The answer is “decreased.”

FIG.2 Download High Resolution Image (.zip file) | Export Figure to PowerPoint

FIG.3
The bank of eight Hubble plots from which students selected their answers to Items 1–4 on Form A.

FIG.3 Download High Resolution Image (.zip file) | Export Figure to PowerPoint

FIG.4
Percent of students who, pre-instruction, chose each graph for Form A, Item 1: Which graph or graph(s), if any, show a universe that is expanding at a constant rate? Black bars represent responses from the fall 2009, gray bars from the spring 2010, and white bars from the fall 2010. The correct answer is Graph F.

FIG.4 Download High Resolution Image (.zip file) | Export Figure to PowerPoint

FIG.5
Percent of students who, pre-instruction, chose each graph for Form A, Item 2: Which graph or graph(s), if any, show a universe that is contracting at a constant rate? Black bars represent responses from the fall 2009, gray bars from the spring 2010, and white bars from the fall 2010. The correct answer is Graph B.

FIG.5 Download High Resolution Image (.zip file) | Export Figure to PowerPoint

FIG.6
Percent of students who, pre-instruction, chose each graph for Form A, Item 3: Which graph or graph(s), if any, show a universe that is expanding at a faster and faster rate over time? Black bars represent responses from the fall 2009, gray bars from the spring 2010, and white bars from the fall 2010. The correct answer is Graph A.

FIG.6 Download High Resolution Image (.zip file) | Export Figure to PowerPoint

FIG.7
Percent of students who, pre-instruction, chose each graph for Form A, Item 4: Which graph or graph(s), if any, show a universe that is expanding at a slower and slower rate over time? Black bars represent responses from the fall 2009, gray bars from the spring 2010, and white bars from the fall 2010. The correct answer is Graph D.

FIG.7 Download High Resolution Image (.zip file) | Export Figure to PowerPoint

FIG.8
The bank of six rotation curves from which students selected their answers on Form D.

FIG.8 Download High Resolution Image (.zip file) | Export Figure to PowerPoint

FIG.9
Percent of students who, pre-instruction, chose each graph for a spiral galaxy’s rotation curve. Black bars represent responses from the fall 2009, gray bars from the spring 2010, and white bars from the fall 2010. The correct answer is Graph 2.

FIG.9 Download High Resolution Image (.zip file) | Export Figure to PowerPoint

FIG.10
Percent of students who, pre-instruction, chose each graph for a solar system’s rotation curve in the fall 2010. The correct answer is Graph 3.

FIG.10 Download High Resolution Image (.zip file) | Export Figure to PowerPoint



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