Serious games have become increasingly available to educators. Empirical studies and meta-analyses have examined their impact on learning achievement. However, natural sciences could have a special relation to serious games by their systematic use of quantitative and predictive models that can generate microworlds and simulations. Since no known meta-analysis on serious games observed a significant impact in the specific context of science learning, the present meta-analysis synthesized results from 79 empirical studies that compared the impact on science learning achievement of instruction using serious games versus instruction using more conventional methods. Consistent with theory and past meta-analyses not specifically related to science learning, post-instruction learning achievement was weakly to moderately higher for declarative knowledge, knowledge retention and procedural knowledge for students taught with serious games. Furthermore, findings of the present work suggest that five moderator variables produced significant effects on the relationship between playing serious games and learning outcomes, and three showed consistent variations in mean effect size that could lead to significance, with more studies and larger samples. These findings are discussed in connection with previous meta-analyses' findings, potential pedagogical implications and possible future research.

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An increasing number of planetariums worldwide are turning digital, using ultrafast computers, powerful graphic cards, and high-resolution video projectors to create highly realistic astronomical imagery in real time. This modern technology makes it so that the audience can observe astronomical phenomena from a geocentric as well as an allocentric perspective (the view from space). While the dome creates a sense of immersion, the digital planetarium introduces a new way to teach astronomy, especially for topics that are inherently three-dimensional and where seeing the phenomenon from different points of view is essential. Like a virtual-reality environment, an immersive digital planetarium helps learners create a more scientifically accurate visualization of astronomical phenomena. In this study, a digital planetarium was used to teach the phases of the Moon to children aged 12 to 14. To fully grasp the lunar phases, one must imagine the spherical Moon (as perceived from space), revolving around the Earth while being illuminated by the Sun, and then reconcile this view with the geocentric perspective. Digital planetariums allow learners to have both an allocentric and a geocentric perspective on the lunar phases. Using a Design experiment approach, we tested an educational scenario in which the lunar phases were taught in an allocentric digital planetarium. Based on qualitative data collected before, during, and after the planetarium intervention, we were able to demonstrate that five out of six participants had a better understanding of the lunar phases after the planetarium session.Keywords Astronomy teaching . Digital planetarium . Full-dome . Phases of the Moon . Development research . Design-based research IntroductionThe phases of the Moon is a difficult concept to understand. Primarily, our limited and exclusively geocentric point of view of the Sun-Earth-Moon system (SEM) (Nussbaum 1985;Black 2005), our incorrect perception of the relative sizes and distances of astronomical objects (Miller & Brewer 2010), and our difficulty to mentally shift away from Earth's frame of reference (Gazit et al. 2005), all prevent us from recognizing the intrinsic three-dimensional Res Sci Educ (2016) 46:43-77 DOI 10.1007 P. Chastenay (*) Département de Didactique, Université du Québec à Montréal, CP 8888 Succursale Centre-Ville, Montréal, Québec, Canada H3C 3P8 e-mail: chastenay.pierre@uqam.ca nature of the mechanism behind this phenomenon. These difficulties lead to a Bplethora of different, more or less complicated conceptions^ (Roald & Mikalsen 2001, p. 236) held by students of different ages and cultural backgrounds about the lunar phases (see work by Baxter 1989;Philips 1991;Schoon 1992;Sharp 1995Sharp , 1996Sharp et al. 1999;Stahly et al. 1999;Dunlop 2000;Liu 2005;LoPresto & Murrell 2011; Comins, n.d.). Several teaching strategies that address misconceptions about the lunar phases have been tested in different educational settings, including using concrete SEM models in a traditional planetarium (Pitluga ...

To determine the extent of astronomy teaching in Quebec’s schools, we conducted an online survey of 500 Québec’s elementary (K-6) teachers between January and March 2015. With a 35-items questionnaire, we wanted to find out how these elementary teachers teach astronomy (or not) to their classrooms, what is their background in Science & Technology (S&T), what pre-service education they received, the reasons why they teach astronomy or not to their students, the resources and materials they have at their disposal, their perception of the effectiveness of pre- and in-service training they received, and their perceived needs for in-service training. Results show that the majority of teachers surveyed didn’t study science beyond high school and have had no experience in S&T employment before becoming a teacher. We also found that only half of the teachers surveyed actually teach astronomy to their class, mostly by using reading and writing material, and that 39% of “Astronomy teachers” in our sample teach astronomy to their class between 6 and 10 hours per year. Major hurdles to astronomy teaching perceived by the teachers in our survey are a lack of experience and training in astronomy, a lack of resources and equipment, inadequate classroom arrangement, and their own, self-perceived incompetence in astronomy. Pre-service education in astronomy, in science and in science teaching is also considered mainly unsatisfactory, or non-existent in the case of astronomy; in-service training in astronomy is mainly composed of conversations with colleagues. Most respondents thus consider in-service training in astronomy to be inefficient or inexistent.

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