Session D: Reimagining Education

Astronomy captivates the public mind, enlightens our relationship to the Universe, and allows us to explore fundamentals of the world. Climate change often terrifies the public, harms our relationship to the Earth, and is forcing us to rapidly change our actions within the world. These topics may seem unrelated, but astronomers are uniquely positioned to play a key role in teaching and talking about the climate crisis. In this presentation I will discuss (1) my doctoral astronomy research into the long-term brightness variations of nearby stars, (2) how these variations could influence the atmospheres and habitability of exoplanets, (3) how my research and astronomy in general offers a unique connection to discussing climate change with students and the public, and (4) efforts within astronomy to expand our teaching of climate change topics in the classroom. For example, I have revealed that the decades-long brightness changes of nearby small stars are often radically stronger than those of our Sun, offering context to discuss how these variations on the Sun are not causing modern climate change on Earth. My ongoing pedagogical studies in this area will help bridge the gap between astronomy and climate change in education, demonstrating a novel approach to advancing this interdisciplinary space. Astronomers study the Universe but cannot do this when our telescopes quite literally burn to the ground because of climate change -- we study the cosmos in part to understand humanity, but we must also help humanity so we can ultimately continue to study the cosmos.

Brazilian Carnaval is a form of popular expression and non-formal space education. Considering the Brazilian laws and directives that determine the inclusion of originary and enslaved populations’ history, culture, and world view to school curriculum, and the works of Thomas Tadeu da Silva on curriculum decolonizing, this work shows how Rio's Carnaval parades present a rewritten decolonized Brazilian history. Although deeply artistic, this form of cultural valuing of previously enslaved and orginary populations presents clearly and didactyly the most relevant topics discussed on Brazilian society through time. Yet only recently there has been a change on the presentation to a happier and more exalting tone, shedding light to the real Brazilian history protagonists, i.e., minorities. The presentation of three Brazilian Carnaval parades from 2019 and 2024, brings the reflection on the real decolonized history, owned and written by Brazilians, valuing Brazilians, overcoming the colonizing whitewashing of historical process description.

Cognitive offloading occurs when you use external aids to store or organize information, freeing up mental resources and reducing demands on memory or attention. Common examples include shopping lists and daily to-do lists. Offloading often results in a decrease in uncertainty and improves task performance and efficiency. We assessed whether 4- and 5-year-old children could use an external aid to spontaneously offload information about the location of a favorite toy. Children hid toys in cups that were all the same color except for one. They then engaged in a separate test to delay prize retrieval. All 43 children showed evidence of cognitive offloading by putting their favorite toy in the unique cup to easily find later. Overall, 81.2% of trials were correctly offloaded and one-third of children reached criteria for proficient offloading with no errors. This indicates that children of this age are capable of cognitive offloading and can often do so immediately and consistently over multiple sessions. Further research on this topic will forward our understanding of metacognitive development, providing insight into when children start to recognize their cognitive limitations and develop helpful strategies to compensate.