1. 1 How Students Learn to Teach Cosmology Jindřiška Svobodová, Jan Novotný, Jana Jurmanová Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic CZ.1.07/2.2.00/28.0182 This research was supported by the EU Grant

2. 2 Science teaching skill proficiency Every science teacher must answer questions posed by students about Universe, galaxies and stars. - Most science students have never had any cosmology course. - Their understanding of the Universe has been formed through exposure in the news, internet sources or movies. What would success in cosmology education look like? Our research case study analyses students’ progress in communication skills in explaining cosmology theories and universe concept.

3. 3 The cosmology course for science teachers 1 hour / 12 weeks, short list of topics: The Copernican principle and observations. Expansion and Hubble law. Relativity and cosmology. Homogeneity, isotropy and the FLRW model. Redshift and cosmological distances. Critical density. Energy conservation equations. Evolution and age of the Universe. Matter content, dark matter and dark energy. Thermal equilibrium. Relic blackbody radiation. Matter–antimatter. Nucleosynthesis. The BigBang Model. Qualitative discussion of inflation. The very early Universe. Evolution of structures. The Fate of the Universe. The Limits of Knowlegde. Course objectives: introduction to the key physical cosmology concepts and to the used methodology

4. 4 Main aims of the study: to evaluate student s’ ability to communicate cosmologic concepts clearly and logically in written and oral formats to identify misunderstandings in cosmology concepts and common physics misconceptions. how the cosmology lectures affects student’s approach to perform their solution of requested quiz tasks Methodology : combined qualitative and quantitative approach.

5. 5 Study Design 2 groups: A students passed a semester course cosmology,. N no special cosmology course 16 Participants - university students (future teachers of physics). They solved a set of 12 tasks and questions – in sufficient time Students explained their argumentation and consideration Interviews for each student were audio recorded. Records were transcribed and coded. The outputs are charts and brief descriptions of detected remarkable answers.

6. 6 Results red A group students passed cosmology course, blue N group students no cosmology course yet.

7. 7 Selected questions What is the evidence for the Beginning of the Universe? Are there any interactions in the Universe we don't know about? Are there any chemical elements in the Universe that do not exist on Earth? Why do we think that the expansion of the Universe is accelerating? How far in the Universe can we see? What does it mean to say that the universe is homogeneous and isotropic? What does it mean when we say that the Universe is flat? When and how was the distance to closest stars measured for the first time? What is the red shift?

8. 8 Misconception I Students are not aware of the fact, that when we talk about flat Universe we have to specify if we mean space or spacetime. The cosmological spacetime is filled with matter and therefore according the theory of relativity is always curved. However the section of space-time corresponding to cosmological simultaneity could be flat – in this case that section represents a three- dimensional Euclidean space. The observed data suggest that the real universe is just such (it is described by lambda CDM model). If an uninitiated reader reads that the universe is flat, he interprets it incorrectly as a disprove (refutation) of the theory of relativity.

9. 9 Students don't understand what is exactly meant by "accelerating expansion of the Universe". How is it possible that the acceleration of the expanding universe asymptotically approaches the stationary de Sitter universe? It's crucial to distinguish the change of speed of an object when it's moving away from an observer, and the change of speed in a location of a constant distance from the observer. Misconception II We can compare the situation to a situation in a weir. The water in the weir falls with acceleration, but weir may be in a stationary state, or it can asymptotically approach it.

10. 10 Why Should People Learn Cosmology? Cosmology gives us the big picture of where we came from, the context and stage in which our lives play out. We want to get the right information about the Universe. Science provides a good way to discover the nature of our Universe. We are part of a cosmic process much bigger and older than ourselves. We make choices and take action based on how we see the world, consciously or unconsciously. Cosmological discoveries over the past 20 years had a great impact on physics. Cosmology topics are common themes in modern fiction, literature, and movies. The Universe is the largest and the most impressive object to demonstrate the validity of principles of physics. Teaching cosmology could be an exciting motivation for further studies.

11. 11 Conclusion The study demonstrated that the Cosmology course affected students' knowledge and improved their ability to talk about and discuss the universe in conjunction with the laws of physics. We found and clarified several misconceptions. Cosmology is not currently standard content of secondary school curriculum, but the importance of cosmology in recent times is hard to miss. Three Nobel Prizes for Cosmology were awarded in recent years. All the media report today about cosmological discoveries and students are more interested in these issues and seek advice from their teachers. It appears that cosmology has a great potential to motivate students and could be a useful tool in the hands of the teacher.

12. 12 Thank you for your attention

13. Scientific Cosmology Universality of physical laws Formation of elements Evolution of stars, etc. Large scale structure formation Distance to galaxies Hubble constant we change as we age What were made of Timeline Events in human History Distances to places on earth Predicatability in life Personal Worldview