The aim of this research study was to explore learning, i.e., changes in the knowledge structures of three in-service science teachers for the subject of active galaxies, through group activity conducted as part of a teacher training program. Qualitative methods were used in this study consisting of creating visual representations of the teachers'…

Since 2017 the Italian Space Agency (ASI) participates to so-called 'Alternanza Scuola-Lavoro' (i.e. 'school-work synergy') outreach projects promoted by the Italian government, and the ASI Space Science Data Center (SSDC) actively contributes to them, with the primary aim of bringing students closer to space-related activities before choosing…

In this paper, we investigate some of the ways in which students, when given the opportunity and an appropriate learning environment, spontaneously engage in collaborative inquiry. We studied small groups of high school students interacting around and with an interactive whiteboard equipped with Algodoo software, as they investigated orbital…

In this study we compare the titles of scientific letters and those of research papers published in the field of astrophysics in order to identify the possible differences and/or similarities between both genres in terms of several linguistic and extra-linguistic variables (length, lexical density, number of prepositions, number of compound…

The chronic underrepresentation of Native and indigenous peoples in STEM fields (Fig. 1) has been a longstanding issue in the United States, despite concentrated efforts by many local and national groups, including the Society for Advancement of Chicanos/Hispanics and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) and the American Indian Science and…

Engaging freshman and sophomore students in meaningful scientific research is challenging because of their developing skill set and their necessary time commitments to regular classwork. A project called the Chondrule Analysis Project was initiated to engage first- and second-year students in an initial research experience and also accomplish…

Introduction: We report an investigation on collaboration practices in research papers published in the most prestigious English-medium astrophysics journals. Method: We propose an evaluation method based on three numerical indicators to study and compare, in absolute terms, three different types of collaboration (international, national and…

Presents the history of the discovery of pulsars, observations that have been made on pulsar radiation, and theories that have been presented for its presence and origin. Illustrations using pulsar's properties are presented in mechanics, electromagnetic radiation and thermodynamics. (DS)

Discusses new problems arising from the growing observational data through radio telescope arrays, involving the origin of radio sources, apparent superluminal velocities, conversion of radio sources to relativistic particles, and the nature of compact opaque and extended transparent sources. New physics may be needed to answer these cosmological…

Discussed are the behaviors of particles and energies in the magnetic fields of neutron stars. Different types of possible research using neutron stars as a laboratory for the study of strong magnetic fields are proposed. (CW)

It is so obvious that the sky is blue in the daytime and black at night, but it took the smartest humans thousands of years of observation, thought, discussion, conjecture, and analysis to finally come up with answers that make scientific sense as to why the sky is these colors. This article discusses light and the scientific research…

Helioseismology (similar to geophysicists' study of seismic waves) makes it possible to penetrate the sun's opaque brilliance by measuring surface oscillations. Their pattern and period hold clues to temperature, structure, composition, and dynamics of the sun's interior. Scientists have used data to build models (evolved mathematically) to…