The initial knowledge of Astronomy freshmen and secondary school curricula.

The Astronomy degree course of the University of Padova is attracting an increasing number of students. However, astronomy finds little space in school programs since the 2010 reform removed it from the Science curriculum. As a consequence, many students enter this course without knowing what Astronomy is, and this results in one of the highest dropout rates of our university. To gain insight into this phenomenon, we administered a validated test (Test Of Astronomy STandards) to 113 Astronomy freshmen in 2017-2018. Moreover, we designed a teacher training course aimed at presenting how astronomy can be introduced in secondary school Physics curricula.