STELLAR ASTRONOMY FOR HIGH SCHOOL EARTH SCIENCE STUDENTS: TEACHING BY USING ANALOGIES

High school students are required to understand the development stages of stars, the evolution of stars, and the processes occurring in stars. Stars and stellar evolution are abstract concepts which can be difficult to teach. Work has demonstrated that analogical thinking and the implementation of analogies are powerful tools in teaching.

This study was conducted to determine if it was feasible to utilize analogical thinking to teach high school earth science students about stars and stellar evolution. Approximately 135 junior and senior earth science students at the Miami Valley Career Technology Center in Clayton, Ohio were taught about stars and stellar evolution by lecture featuring a H-R Diagram. During direct instruction, a total of three analogies were used: 1.The fuel consumption of massive stars is similar to that of large cars, 2. Stars have a lifecycle like humans with a beginning and end, and 3. The H-R Diagram of stars is analogous to an imaginary H-R Diagram of Cars where the relationship between surface temperature and magnitude in stars is similar to the relationship between weight and horsepower in cars. At the conclusion of the lesson, all students were administered a quick write prompt (“How are stars like cars and people?”) in order to determine the effectiveness of these analogies for understanding stars and stellar evolution.

Quick write prompts suggested that the analogies were useful in helping students to understand general principles of stars and stellar evolution. However, the analogies may have had limitations in helping students to understand core concepts such as how the mass of a star influences stellar evolution. Future research studies may help to determine the best methods and techniques of implementing analogies to teach about stars and stellar evolution. Additional studies will investigate the integration of technology such as stellar evolution software in conjunction with analogical thinking and whether both will enable students to fully grasp the development stages of stars, the evolution of stars, and the processes occurring in stars.