Interactive processing of astronomical observations in a cooperative modelling environment

The astronomy domain provides rich opportunities for learning about natural phenomena. It can involve and motivate a variety of mathematical and physical knowledge and skills. However it is difficult to connect astronomic observations to modelling and calculation tools and to embed them into educational scenarios. It is particularly this challenge which is focused in this paper. Concretely, we build on an existing collaborative modelling framework (Cool Modes) and extend it with specific representations to support learning activities in astronomy. A first field test has been conducted with these extensions.