A proposal for teaching Astronomy and Astrophysics foundations via just-in-time teaching

Abstract

Although the Teaching of Astronomy is recommended by several normative documents; it is disregarded by most textbook authors, and forgotten by basic education teachers in their didactic planning and actions. As a way to contribute to fill this gap, we developed a sequence using the Just-in-time Teaching method. This didactic sequence used the aforementioned method to address the following topics: What is a star? What is the origin of the formation of the solar system? The birth, life and death of stars, nucleosynthesis and the origin and expansion of the universe. Five classes with 50 minutes each were programmed and, at the end, a conceptual test was applied in order to assess the students' learning and an opinion questionnaire, in order to verify their engagement. With such applications, it was noticed that this didactic sequence provided student engagement in these activities.