The Behavioral Selection of Planetarium Concepts Appropriate for Second Grade Students

Abstract

Reported is an evaluation of a planetarium curriculum for elementary students at the primary level in terms of student behavior. Five sub-problems were investigated which related to which concepts could be learned by the planetarium-experience and which concepts were retained after a two-week time lapse. The One-Group Pretest-Posttest Design was used with six classes to assess the appropriateness of 11 to 16 behavioral objectives prepared for each of three planetarium programs. Evaluation instruments were prepared by using the criterion tests written into each objective. A Chi-square test was used to correlate retention with time spent by teachers postteaching the concepts. Analysis of the data showed that the experience resulted in a significant increase in the level of student understanding for 39 concepts, 24 of which were significantly understood prior to the experience. Some of the concepts proved to be too complex. Almost all of the major concepts presented were significantly retained after a two-week lapse. It was also determined that there was a positive correlation between the students' retention with the time spent by teachers in postteaching planetarium concepts.