Physics Education Research shows that active learning and interdisciplinary strategies can enhance students’ engagement in physics. In primary school, the implementation of active learning pedagogies such as Inquiry-Based Science Education aims to encourage students’ autonomy and participation in their learning process. Indeed, active learning promotes pupils’ creativity, helping them develop the skills that increasingly determine their future employability and personal development, introducing them to STEM. In this regard, stories and storytelling can help improve teaching and students’ physics learning. Telling the Universe and its history can afford this job. The Big Bang, the Cosmic Microwave Background, and the formation of stars and planets are valuable tools for introducing primary school students to physics and the scientific method while fostering their curiosity about science. Moreover, it helps the instructors monitor the development of peculiar misconceptions on these topics, preventing them from fully understanding physics phenomena. In this paper, we present an innovative short-term program (one session of three hours) called ‘The Universe in a Box’ to introduce primary school students (grades 4–5, ages 9–10) to cosmology. We illustrate our design and the educational purposes of the program and present the outcomes from its implementation in five different laboratories in Sardinia, Italy, from 2022 to 2024 (60 students involved). This work can furnish a theoretical and methodological guide for primary school teachers and instructors on integrating formal curricula with contemporary physics topics using interdisciplinary approaches, engaging their students in STEAM (STEM plus Arts).

The ‘Universe in a Box’: a hands-on activity to introduce primary school students to cosmology

Matteo Tuveri
Primo
;
Arianna Steri
Secondo
2024-01-01

Abstract

Physics Education Research shows that active learning and interdisciplinary strategies can enhance students’ engagement in physics. In primary school, the implementation of active learning pedagogies such as Inquiry-Based Science Education aims to encourage students’ autonomy and participation in their learning process. Indeed, active learning promotes pupils’ creativity, helping them develop the skills that increasingly determine their future employability and personal development, introducing them to STEM. In this regard, stories and storytelling can help improve teaching and students’ physics learning. Telling the Universe and its history can afford this job. The Big Bang, the Cosmic Microwave Background, and the formation of stars and planets are valuable tools for introducing primary school students to physics and the scientific method while fostering their curiosity about science. Moreover, it helps the instructors monitor the development of peculiar misconceptions on these topics, preventing them from fully understanding physics phenomena. In this paper, we present an innovative short-term program (one session of three hours) called ‘The Universe in a Box’ to introduce primary school students (grades 4–5, ages 9–10) to cosmology. We illustrate our design and the educational purposes of the program and present the outcomes from its implementation in five different laboratories in Sardinia, Italy, from 2022 to 2024 (60 students involved). This work can furnish a theoretical and methodological guide for primary school teachers and instructors on integrating formal curricula with contemporary physics topics using interdisciplinary approaches, engaging their students in STEAM (STEM plus Arts).
2024
Active learning; Inquiry-based science education; Storytelling; Cosmology; Primary school
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
Tuveri_2025_Phys._Educ._60_015002.pdf

accesso aperto

Tipologia: versione editoriale (VoR)
Dimensione 845.74 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
845.74 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11584/427526
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact