We have undertaken a multi-semester study of student ideas in an undergraduate general education astronomy
integrated lecture and lab course with a focus on active learning at an urban, minority serving institution. We
collected individual interviews (N ¼ 15) and course artifacts (N 60), such as pre-course homework essays and
midterm and final exam questions in a variety of formats. Continuing our work from a previous study (Coble
et al. 2013), here we examine student ideas with regard to the Big Bang Theory, expansion, age, and history of
the Universe. We find that a significant fraction of students hold alternate conceptions, including: the Big Bang
Theory describes the creation of planets and/or our Solar System; the “Big Bang” refers to an explosion within
a small point or mass; there is no evidence in support of the Big Bang Theory; the Universe has always
existed; and stars, galaxies, and/or planets formed at the same time or very soon after the creation of the
Universe.