Enhancing Skill Development in Digitally Instructed Hands-On - Minds-On Astronomy Lessons

Building on the Minds-On project, this study developed the online module “Celestial Bodies” to enhance hands-on and minds-on learning, providing students with individualised feedback prompts to monitor and identify weaknesses in their understanding. The lesson centred on classifying 14 celestial bodies based on three properties, with the guidance of the online module and a map and cards. This study aimed to (1) enhance student engagement with the software, and (2) asses the impact of guided instructions and feedback prompts. We introduce our interactive lesson, present findings, and discuss their benefits in upper primary education classes to enhance student engagement, concept learning, emphasising enhanced integration of minds-on and hands-on activities.