Community College Students' Responses to Research Paper Assignments in Introduction to Astronomy Courses: A Case Study
POSTER
Abstract
This presentation continues my ongoing scholarship of teaching and learning activities and serves as an extended version applied to introductory astronomy courses at community colleges. The same approach was previously implemented in general physics courses and presented at the APS 2025 March Meeting under the title ‘Community College Students’ Responses to Research Paper Assignments in General Physics Courses: A Case Study.’
Based on previous experience, assigning homework questions directly from the textbook proved ineffective, as less-motivated students could easily find answers from freely available online resources. To discourage this trend and to foster critical thinking skills, two or three research papers or popular science essays have been assigned each semester as homework. The topics of these papers or essays are selected to align closely with the corresponding chapters in the OpenStax Astronomy textbook. Although it is not common practice to assign research papers or essays to students in introductory, general-education astronomy courses, this approach encourages students to think critically in order to respond to the questions prepared based on these readings. One of the advantages of this method is that the answers cannot be easily found through internet searches. For example, students were assigned Andrew Fraknoi’s essay “An Astronomer Looks at Astrology” and asked questions such as: What is the author’s purpose in writing this article? and How does the article impact your understanding of astronomy content and pedagogy? Because the questions were open-ended and discussion-based, many students expressed original thoughts in their responses—something rarely observed when similar questions were asked from the textbook. In this presentation, I will discuss students’ responses to these assignments, based on their submitted work and associated survey data. Preliminary findings indicate that, in addition to improving their understanding of course content, students gained insights into the basic structure of research—such as how research is conducted and the limitations inherent in it.
Based on previous experience, assigning homework questions directly from the textbook proved ineffective, as less-motivated students could easily find answers from freely available online resources. To discourage this trend and to foster critical thinking skills, two or three research papers or popular science essays have been assigned each semester as homework. The topics of these papers or essays are selected to align closely with the corresponding chapters in the OpenStax Astronomy textbook. Although it is not common practice to assign research papers or essays to students in introductory, general-education astronomy courses, this approach encourages students to think critically in order to respond to the questions prepared based on these readings. One of the advantages of this method is that the answers cannot be easily found through internet searches. For example, students were assigned Andrew Fraknoi’s essay “An Astronomer Looks at Astrology” and asked questions such as: What is the author’s purpose in writing this article? and How does the article impact your understanding of astronomy content and pedagogy? Because the questions were open-ended and discussion-based, many students expressed original thoughts in their responses—something rarely observed when similar questions were asked from the textbook. In this presentation, I will discuss students’ responses to these assignments, based on their submitted work and associated survey data. Preliminary findings indicate that, in addition to improving their understanding of course content, students gained insights into the basic structure of research—such as how research is conducted and the limitations inherent in it.
*California State University & Yuba College
Presenters
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Mahendra B Thapa
- California State University Chico