THE UNIVERSE IN A BOX: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF ASTRONOMY IN THE INITIAL FORMATION OF PHYSICS TEACHERS

Abstract

This is a report of an activity of introduction to the study of Astronomy developed with a group of future Physics teachers at a Brazilian public university.  Such activity had the goal of giving privileged emphasis to notions of spatiality, alternative conceptions of the participants and the process of interaction among peers, and consisted of the representation, in a three dimensional space, of the models of the universe that the participants had.  The results, which were categorized as miscellaneous, geocentric, heliocentric and acentric models of the universe, were qualitatively analyzed.  Analyses of the activity in the perspective of the participants are indicated and additional considerations are made regarding its use as a resource for teaching Astronomy and for teacher training.