ASTRONOMY WORKSHOPS AND THE NATURE OF SCIENCE KNOWLEDGE

1. Instituto de Astronomía y Física del Espacio CONICET - UBA Facultad de Ingeniería Universidad de Buenos Aires ASTRONOMY WORKSHOPS AND THE NATURE OF SCIENCE KNOWLEDGE Haydée Santilli & Susana Boudemont IHPST Ninth International History, Philosophy & Science Teaching Conference June 2007

2. Initial supposition When students understand the nature of science, they could understand better the scientific contents Astronomy and the nature of science • The analysis of astronomer’s work allow students to perceive the way in which the scientist built the scientific knowledge • Astronomers use complex technologies, which are very interesting for students. The theoretical frame of these technologies is far from student knowledge, the teachers must be careful to allow students to understand these technologies • History of science could help students to find the relationship between astronomer work and the nature of science • Astronomy topics allow the introduction of outstanding scientific knowledge, different ways of scientific work, new technologies and data analysis, and interpretation systems

3. Hubble ? How do astronomers work in Argentina today? ASTRONOMY ASTROPHYSICS QUANTUM PHYSICS COSMOLOGY RELATIVITY THEORY " SCIENCE WORKSHOPS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE" IAFE (INSTITUTE OF ASTRONOMY AND SPACE PHYSICS) - (CONICET-UBA) 2002-2003-2004-2005-2006-2007

4. Workshop Characteristics The workshops are intended for high school and university introductory coursestudents Student goals: • To get better vocation choices • To understand astronomy, astrophysics and cosmology topics • To comprehend the way of researching these topics • To be in touch with researchers • To be aware of current science

5. Research Methodology • Qualitative, holistic and interpretative approach • The data analysis emerge from the student answers to open inquiries • Student characteristics: • their ages fluctuate between fifteen and nineteen • they have pre-scientific and little assimilated scientific knowledge • The data were analysed associating each student idea to a category. It was used a qualitative software called NUDIST • Triangulation: • by the instrument (different questions of the inquiry aimed at the same subject) • by the investigator

6. Students’ science vision Scientificexplanations Laws and theories Emerged Categories Material things Scientific Research Methodology Projects Society Scientists’wayofwork Profession

7. StudentSayings S1: We could learn the stellar phenomena or the astronomical ones by using physical explanations. S2: The participation of everybody at the workshops allow us to deduce by ourselves some of the laws that rule the universe. Moreover when we learn astronomy, we could understand how science works: scientists begin stating a hypothesis and then they try to prove it. S3: Cosmology for understanding how man gets knowledge from the beginning of science. We could understand in which way man’s ideas about cosmos have been changing.

8. SomeConclusions Studentcommitment • They asked for formal testing and for being accepted as student assistant for the scientists • They did a number of suggestions for improving the workshops Nature of science knowledge • Students could understand the way how is science built today, recognizing its a day by day growth. It is an approach to the scientific working way • They present just a few inductivist ideas • They are concerned about the social aspects of scientific work

9. Scientific content understanding Vocation choice Students recognize science, as a human built, it is an image of science less accurate than the fictional usual view that textbooks and science teachers often offer Thanks for your attention hsantil@fi.uba.ar susana@iafe.uba.ar