Edward E. Prather
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View article: Bringing Lecture-Tutorials Online: An Analysis of A New Strategy to Teach Planet Formation in the Undergraduate Classroom
Bringing Lecture-Tutorials Online: An Analysis of A New Strategy to Teach Planet Formation in the Undergraduate Classroom Open
Previous studies conclusively show that pencil-and-paper lecture-tutorials (LTs) are incredibly effective at increasing student engagement and learning gains on a variety of topics when compared to traditional lecture. LTs in astronomy are…
View article: Bringing Lecture-Tutorials Online: An Analysis of A New Strategy to Teach Planet Formation in the Undergraduate Classroom
Bringing Lecture-Tutorials Online: An Analysis of A New Strategy to Teach Planet Formation in the Undergraduate Classroom Open
Previous studies conclusively show that pencil-and-paper lecture-tutorials (LTs) are incredibly effective at increasing student engagement and learning gains on a variety of topics when compared to traditional lecture. LTs in astronomy are…
View article: Embracing interactive teaching methods
Embracing interactive teaching methods Open
New physics and astronomy faculty are excited about active teaching, but they still need support to implement the ideas in their classes.
View article: New Curriculum Development Model for Improving Undergraduate Students’ Data Literacy and Self-Efficacy in Online Astronomy Classrooms
New Curriculum Development Model for Improving Undergraduate Students’ Data Literacy and Self-Efficacy in Online Astronomy Classrooms Open
There is a critical need for research-based active learning instructional materials for the teaching and learning of STEM in online courses. Every year, hundreds of thousands of undergraduate non-science majors enroll in general education …
View article: A New Lecture-Tutorial for Teaching about Molecular Excitations and Synchrotron Radiation
A New Lecture-Tutorial for Teaching about Molecular Excitations and Synchrotron Radiation Open
Light and spectroscopy are among the most important and frequently taught topics in introductory college-level general education astronomy courses (hereafter Astro 101). This is due to the fact that the vast majority of observational data …
View article: Students taught by a first-time instructor using active learning teaching strategies outperform students taught by a highly-regarded traditional instructor
Students taught by a first-time instructor using active learning teaching strategies outperform students taught by a highly-regarded traditional instructor Open
In this paper we put forth a model for physics course reform that uniquely uses proven, research-based active learning strategies to help students improve their physics knowledge and problem-solving skills. In this study, we compared the e…
View article: Making Science Personal: Inclusivity-Driven Design for General-Education Courses
Making Science Personal: Inclusivity-Driven Design for General-Education Courses Open
General-education college astronomy courses offer instructors both a unique audience and a unique challenge. For many students, such a course may be their first time encountering a standalone astronomy class, and it is also likely one of t…
View article: Using graphical and pictorial representations to teach introductory astronomy students about the detection of extrasolar planets via gravitational microlensing
Using graphical and pictorial representations to teach introductory astronomy students about the detection of extrasolar planets via gravitational microlensing Open
The detection and study of extrasolar planets is an exciting and thriving field in modern astrophysics and an increasingly popular topic in introductory astronomy courses. One detection method relies on searching for stars whose light has …
View article: The development and validation of the Planet Formation Concept Inventory
The development and validation of the Planet Formation Concept Inventory Open
The discovery and characterisation of planets orbiting distant stars has shed light on the origin of our own Solar System. It is important that college-level introductory astronomy students have a general understanding of the planet format…
View article: Uncovering the unknown unknowns of Peer Instruction Questions
Uncovering the unknown unknowns of Peer Instruction Questions Open
“Wow! I wish I’d written that question...” Many instructors struggle to write Peer Instruction questions that can drive the intellectually engaging discussions necessary to fully develop learners’ discipline fluency. Does your question ban…
View article: The development and validation of the Planet Formation Concept Inventory
The development and validation of the Planet Formation Concept Inventory Open
The discovery and characterisation of planets orbiting distant stars has shed light on the origin of our own Solar System. It is important that college-level introductory astronomy students have a general understanding of the planet format…
View article: The development and validation of the Planet Formation Concept Inventory
The development and validation of the Planet Formation Concept Inventory Open
The discovery and characterisation of planets orbiting distant stars has shed light on the origin of our own Solar System. It is important that college-level introductory astronomy students have a general understanding of the planet format…
View article: Mapping the Milky Way: A Radio Astronomy-Directed Investigation for Lecture-Based Astro 101 Courses
Mapping the Milky Way: A Radio Astronomy-Directed Investigation for Lecture-Based Astro 101 Courses Open
The Green Bank 20-meter radio telescope integrated into the Skynet Robotic Telescope Network offers a unique opportunity to engage learners in investigations that are not possible with optical telescopes. Radio investigation of the Milky W…
View article: Item response theory evaluation of the Light and Spectroscopy Concept Inventory national data set
Item response theory evaluation of the Light and Spectroscopy Concept Inventory national data set Open
This paper presents the first item response theory (IRT) analysis of the national data set on introductory, general education, college-level astronomy teaching using the Light and Spectroscopy Concept Inventory (LSCI). We used the differen…
View article: Finding the time: Exploring a new perspective on students’ perceptions of cosmological time and efforts to improve temporal frameworks in astronomy
Finding the time: Exploring a new perspective on students’ perceptions of cosmological time and efforts to improve temporal frameworks in astronomy Open
One goal for a scientifically literate citizenry would be for learners to appreciate when the Earth came to be and where it resides in the Universe. Understanding the Earth's formation in time in both a sociohistorical and scientific sense…
View article: Lecture-Tutorials in Introductory Astronomy
Lecture-Tutorials in Introductory Astronomy Open
The Lecture-Tutorials for Introductory Astronomy have been designed to help introductory astronomy instructors actively engage their students in developing their conceptual understandings and reasoning abilities across a wide range of astr…
View article: The Quantitative Reasoning for College Science (QuaRCS) Assessment 2: Demographic, Academic and Attitudinal Variables as Predictors of Quantitative Ability
The Quantitative Reasoning for College Science (QuaRCS) Assessment 2: Demographic, Academic and Attitudinal Variables as Predictors of Quantitative Ability Open
In this article, we explore the ability of demographic and attitudinal variables to predict student scores on the Quantitative Reasoning for College Science (QuaRCS) Assessment. Variables measured by the assessment include: students' acade…
View article: Evaluation Methodology and Results for the New Faculty Workshops
Evaluation Methodology and Results for the New Faculty Workshops Open
This paper describes the current evaluation of the Physics and Astronomy New Faculty Workshop (NFW) as a case-study in evaluation of professional development workshops. We describe a Theory of Action (ToA) for the workshop, and the evaluat…
View article: Applicability of the Newtonian gravity concept inventory to introductory college physics classes
Applicability of the Newtonian gravity concept inventory to introductory college physics classes Open
The study described here extends the applicability of the Newtonian Gravity Concept Inventory (NGCI) to college algebra-based physics classes, beyond the general education astronomy courses for which it was originally developed. The four c…