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Design and validation of an instrument to test students’ understanding of the apparent motion of the Sun and stars

Hans Bekaert1, Hans Van Winckel2, Wim Van Dooren3, An Steegen4, and Mieke De Cock1,*

  • 1KU Leuven, Department of Physics and Astronomy and LESEC, Celestijnenlaan 200c—box 2406, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
  • 2KU Leuven, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Celestijnenlaan 200d—box 2401, 3001 Leuven, Belgium
  • 3KU Leuven, Centre for Instructional Psychology and Technology, Dekenstraat 2—box 3773, 3000 Leuven, Belgium
  • 4KU Leuven, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences & LESEC, Celestijnenlaan 200e—box 2409, 3001 Leuven, Belgium

  • *mieke.decock@kuleuven.be
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Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 16, 020135 – Published 18 November, 2020

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.16.020135

Abstract

Young children, students, and adults may have alternative ideas about the motion of the Sun and stars as we observe them in the sky. However, a good understanding of this apparent motion is essential as a starting point to study more advanced astronomical concepts, especially when these include astronomical observations. In this paper, we describe the development and validation of the apparent motion of Sun and stars (AMoSS) test, which can measure to what extent students have insight into the apparent motion of the Sun and stars. We propose a framework that allows one to compare students’ understanding of the specific aspects of these apparent motions in relation to the time of the day, time of the year, and the observer’s latitude. For each of these aspects, we designed test items for both the Sun and the symmetric apparent motion aspect of the stars. The reliability and validity of the test are established by analyzing answers of both secondary school and university students and by presenting the questions to a panel of experts. We report on the design and validation process and present the final version of the test.

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Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. 16, 020135– Published 18 November, 2020
  • Received 23 February 2020
  • Accepted 18 September 2020
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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