The Past Almost Half-Century Landing On The Moon And Still Countering Basic Astronomy Conceptions

The purpose of study is to investigate the fifth graders’ understandings of the basic astronomy concept and, if they have, to define their misconceptions and then to determine what reason/s behind them. For this purpose, two hundred seventy fifth grade students from 6 different schools participated. Randomly selected 45 students performing under the class average and 6 teachers were interviewed to determine what reason/s behind students’ misconceptions. The results of study showed that many 5th graders have some misconceptions, such as Moon moves into the Sun’s shadow, Moon only revolves around the Earth and not around the Sun, the cause of day-light is the Moon blocks the Sun’s light. The reasons are one of reconciling out of school experiences, such as observing the rising and setting sun, seeing stars only at night, school experiences, such as misleading diagrams and inappropriate materials, ambiguous terminology and impropriate teaching methodology used by teacher.