Use of animated concept cartoons in secondary school astronomy education

This study aimed to develop a series of animated concept cartoons that can be used to identify common astronomy misconceptions at the middle school level and to identify the Moon-related misconceptions of a group of middle school students among astronomy misconceptions using these concept cartoons. A quantitative/descriptive research model was used in this study. In this study, which aimed to design, develop and evaluate a series of animated concept cartoons that can be used to identify existing misconceptions about the concept of the Moon and to cause students to experience cognitive conflict, five concept cartoons about the Moon were developed and applied to a group of middle school students from different grade levels. The sample of the study, which was conducted in the second semester of the 2023-2024 academic year, consisted of eleven classes with 197 students from each grade level, studying in two public middle schools in Muradiye district of Van province. Convenience sampling, one of the non-random sampling methods, was applied to select the participants. In addition, a pilot study was carried out before the main implementation in the study, and the sample of the pilot application consisted of students studying in two classes of a public secondary school in Muradiye District of Van Province at the 6th grade level. The pilot study was carried out with a sample of 32 participants. In addition to the animated concept cartoons, a three-tier concept test was developed to distinguish students' misconceptions from simple errors and lack of knowledge, and a 15-item Likert-type opinion form was developed to collect students' opinions about the animated concept cartoons. These three data collection tools were developed with a process that included prototype preparation, pilot implementation, expert opinion and revision stages, and the data collected from the participants were analyzed in order to obtain feedback on making the concept cartoons more effective. All analyses were performed using the JAMOVI statistical software. When the findings of the study are examined, it is seen that the three-tier concept test accompanying the animated concept cartoons applied was able to detect the misconceptions included in this study about the Moon in a way that supports the studies in the literature, and the findings obtained from the concept cartoon opinion form show that female and male students at all grade levels at the secondary school level found the animated concept cartoons developed in this study instructive and enjoyable.