Dr. Julia Plummer is part of a growing community of astronomy education researchers. Her research on the development of a learning progression for celestial motion will inform future development of curriculum and assessments for K-12 astronomy education. This work builds on her dissertation, Students' Development of Astronomy Concepts across Time, for which she received the 2007 Outstanding Dissertation Award from the National Association for Research in Science Teaching. Her research on science teaching and instructional design expands the currently limited research based in astronomy education on instruction and includes one of the only studies that demonstrate the success of a planetarium program in improving children's understanding of astronomy concepts. Her current research examines how students can be guided along a progression of understanding towards more sophisticated ways of knowing in the elementary astronomy conceptual domain. The development of this progression will utilize her current research on astronomy instruction in third grade classrooms as well as pre-service teachers designing and conducting inquiry investigations to improve their content and pedagogical knowledge of celestial motion. As a research assistant in the Center for Curriculum Materials in Science (a 5-year NSF funded collaboration), she co-authored units on astronomy and energy for publication in an inquiry-based middle school science curriculum through It's About Time. Her work as an educational researcher also builds on her experience teaching undergraduate astronomy courses, training future science teachers, and 12 years of experience teaching in the planetarium, conducting workshops for K-12 students, and teaching summer astronomy programs for secondary students. (03/28/08)