Read the activity found here (this should take 20 min)
Read the opening paragraph of the Wikipedia article on the Sloan Digital Survey. (this should take 5 min)
Today, you will be doing a digital scavenger hunt with a partner. The activity is found here. (this should take 50-60 min, so take your time with the reading)
Note: the magnitudes are listed using 5 different filters-- u, g, r, i ,z Each of the filters is tracking different wavelengths. At this point, just write them down.
You will probably not get all 18 of the questions answered. That's ok. Do your best.
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Friday, October 14, 2011
Special Relativity
The background
Tutorial 1
Tutorial 2
Tutorial 3
Tutorial 4
Tutorial 5
Tutorial 6
GO through each tutorial and then summarize in one or two paragraphs.
Each of these tutorials focuses on a specific concept. When you get done, you should be able to explain
*the twin paradox
*simultaneity
*length dilation
*time dilation
*special relativity
Hand in the seven paragraphs and the definitions INDIVIDUALLY when you are finished.
Tutorial 1
Tutorial 2
Tutorial 3
Tutorial 4
Tutorial 5
Tutorial 6
GO through each tutorial and then summarize in one or two paragraphs.
Each of these tutorials focuses on a specific concept. When you get done, you should be able to explain
*the twin paradox
*simultaneity
*length dilation
*time dilation
*special relativity
Hand in the seven paragraphs and the definitions INDIVIDUALLY when you are finished.
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Galaxies and Star Details
Stellar Evolution
Quasars
Go to the Hubble Galaxy Hunt activity. Take the time you need to explore, but when you are done, I need you to write a 3-4 paragraph reflection on your impressions, including data, statistics, and size factors.
Quasars
Go to the Hubble Galaxy Hunt activity. Take the time you need to explore, but when you are done, I need you to write a 3-4 paragraph reflection on your impressions, including data, statistics, and size factors.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Podcast Listening Wheels
Classifying
galaxies is not a very precise system of ideas.
Enrichment:
To find out more about galaxies, use a listening wheel at your table.
Listening wheel. Pick
three of the podcasts and listen. Write
down the big five points when you get done.
Stephan’s Quintet in 60 Seconds
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Galaxy Basics
Gathering Online Data
Go to http://www.galaxyzoo.org/classify and start looking at the galaxies. As you go through each galaxy, draw it's basic shape. Follow the prompts, but don't limiti your observations to the questions being asked. Take about 5 minutes. When you get done, and have seen at least 15 galaxies, and have 10 or more observations, try to define a galaxy in your own words. Conside what you have seen,
Now, go back to GalaxyZoo and go through the tutorial. As you do this, write down another 10 observations.
Partner with some one else and compare your observations. One good way to do this is a t-chart, or Venn diagram. This can tell us what a galaxy is and what a galaxy isn't. Share at least two questions you still have below your diagram for when your class is discussing your findings.
Classifying Galaxies
Go to http://btc.montana.edu/ceres/html/Galaxy/galunknsheet.html and sort the galaxies into at least 4 categories. Explain what each category has for characteristics. The parts of a galaxy might be helpful.
Compare your classification system to those of others. How are they similar? Different?
Why do people pick one system for classifying over another? Can you think of classifying systems in some of these categories:
* Biology
* Sports
* Medicine
* English
* Other…
Share examples of classification in the world. What makes one system ‘right?’
Misconceptions In Action
Edwin Hubble's misconceptions were reflected in his ideas about the evolution of galaxies and the diagram you see at the top of this lesson. Read the article (but don't do the Exercise) before posting to the forum on galaxy selections and explain what you think is happening.
Our Own Misconceptions
Take the time to create your own pictures of the Milky Way from a top view and a side view using the data found in The Galaxy Song by Eric Idle. Your teacher may play the accompanying song:
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'.
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go 'round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.
Compare your picture to known data of the Milky Way, and to an analysis of the song. Why are galaxies difficult to visualize?
Go to http://www.galaxyzoo.org/classify and start looking at the galaxies. As you go through each galaxy, draw it's basic shape. Follow the prompts, but don't limiti your observations to the questions being asked. Take about 5 minutes. When you get done, and have seen at least 15 galaxies, and have 10 or more observations, try to define a galaxy in your own words. Conside what you have seen,
Now, go back to GalaxyZoo and go through the tutorial. As you do this, write down another 10 observations.
Partner with some one else and compare your observations. One good way to do this is a t-chart, or Venn diagram. This can tell us what a galaxy is and what a galaxy isn't. Share at least two questions you still have below your diagram for when your class is discussing your findings.
Classifying Galaxies
Go to http://btc.montana.edu/ceres/html/Galaxy/galunknsheet.html and sort the galaxies into at least 4 categories. Explain what each category has for characteristics. The parts of a galaxy might be helpful.
Compare your classification system to those of others. How are they similar? Different?
Why do people pick one system for classifying over another? Can you think of classifying systems in some of these categories:
* Biology
* Sports
* Medicine
* English
* Other…
Share examples of classification in the world. What makes one system ‘right?’
Misconceptions In Action
Edwin Hubble's misconceptions were reflected in his ideas about the evolution of galaxies and the diagram you see at the top of this lesson. Read the article (but don't do the Exercise) before posting to the forum on galaxy selections and explain what you think is happening.
Our Own Misconceptions
Take the time to create your own pictures of the Milky Way from a top view and a side view using the data found in The Galaxy Song by Eric Idle. Your teacher may play the accompanying song:
Just remember that you're standing on a planet that's evolving
And revolving at nine hundred miles an hour,
That's orbiting at nineteen miles a second, so it's reckoned,
A sun that is the source of all our power.
The sun and you and me and all the stars that we can see
Are moving at a million miles a day
In an outer spiral arm, at forty thousand miles an hour,
Of the galaxy we call the 'Milky Way'.
Our galaxy itself contains a hundred billion stars.
It's a hundred thousand light years side to side.
It bulges in the middle, sixteen thousand light years thick,
But out by us, it's just three thousand light years wide.
We're thirty thousand light years from galactic central point.
We go 'round every two hundred million years,
And our galaxy is only one of millions of billions
In this amazing and expanding universe.
The universe itself keeps on expanding and expanding
In all of the directions it can whizz
As fast as it can go, at the speed of light, you know,
Twelve million miles a minute, and that's the fastest speed there is.
So remember, when you're feeling very small and insecure,
How amazingly unlikely is your birth,
And pray that there's intelligent life somewhere up in space,
'Cause there's bugger all down here on Earth.
Compare your picture to known data of the Milky Way, and to an analysis of the song. Why are galaxies difficult to visualize?
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
Should we Build and Deploy the James Webb Telescope
The James Webb Telescope is slated to be deployed in 2018, but......budget cuts may get in the way.
Your ASSESSMENT for this unit is to find out this telescope, compare it to one specific telescope located in space, a specific reflecting or refracting telescope and a specific radio telescope. Your goal is to decide if we need this telescope or not, based on what we already have.
This chart will be worth 20 points.
You will develop an opinion paper that is 5-7 paragraphs and supported with details, including whether or not the James Webb telescope should be built, how this will affect Sun research, how this affect our knowledge of neutrinos, and what we can potentially discover. This essay will be worth 20 points and will be graded as follows:
Thesis statement: 3 points
Supporting details: up to 10 points
Defined conclusion: 4 points
Grammar and Mechanics: 3 points
Your ASSESSMENT for this unit is to find out this telescope, compare it to one specific telescope located in space, a specific reflecting or refracting telescope and a specific radio telescope. Your goal is to decide if we need this telescope or not, based on what we already have.
This chart will be worth 20 points.
You will develop an opinion paper that is 5-7 paragraphs and supported with details, including whether or not the James Webb telescope should be built, how this will affect Sun research, how this affect our knowledge of neutrinos, and what we can potentially discover. This essay will be worth 20 points and will be graded as follows:
Thesis statement: 3 points
Supporting details: up to 10 points
Defined conclusion: 4 points
Grammar and Mechanics: 3 points
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
The Life Cycle of the Stars
Stellar Life Cycle
*what is the life cycle of our star?
*what is the HR diagram?
*what are characteristics of each of the stellar stages?
*how do gravity and pressure affect one another through the life cycle of a star? How does the balance change through each stage?
* What is the main sequence?
* How does the brightness of our star change over its lifetime?
* How does the temperature of our star change over its lifetime?
*what is the life cycle of our star?
*what is the HR diagram?
*what are characteristics of each of the stellar stages?
*how do gravity and pressure affect one another through the life cycle of a star? How does the balance change through each stage?
* What is the main sequence?
* How does the brightness of our star change over its lifetime?
* How does the temperature of our star change over its lifetime?
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